Convention Special: Get ready for more flights and lower fares, says Walsh
British Airways’ merger with Iberia and American Airlines will provide agents with more flights to sell, many at lower fares, and will improve access to places like South America and Japan, said BA chief Willie Walsh.
En route to a board meeting for the new American Airlines Iberia in Madrid, Walsh told the audience at the ABTA Travel Convention that the three-way alliance was good news for the trade.
He said: “This signifies a real change to you and our mutual customers. We are looking at 433 destinations, 105 countries and 5,178 daily departures.
"There will be more flights to the same destinations, creating cheaper fares, and customers can mix and match across the three airlines.
“We are aligning schedules to make for easier connections, there will be a oneworld transfer centre that will look after customers who are connecting between flights and with frequent flyer plans there will be more opportunity to earn and redeem points.”
He said it was inevitable that airlines would consolidate to survive but assured the audience that the BA brand would remain British and the Iberia brand Spanish.
Synergy savings are expected to be in the order of €400m a year by the fifth year.
Walsh added: “The merger with Iberia will open up rapidly-growing South America to our customers and there will be 64 flights to the Caribbean on top of that – that’s more flights to the region than any other European carrier.”
He added that there would be easier access to Japan and it would finally be possible to establish a London to San Diego route, which BA has twice failed to do.
By Dinah Hatch
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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