Qatar Airways Near to Acquiring up to 20% of Virgin Australia

[tmdl]

It’s got nothing to do with QF. I don’t know why you felt the need to mention them (or more likely, suggest my opinion isn’t valid because I don’t loathe QF the same as you. Having said that, I have not once ever flown QF to Europe. I’ve always used other airlines).

QR competes with many airlines, QF is just one, and really a minor competitor in the grand scheme of things. SQ, like EK, is a major competitor to their business model. People said EY would coexist with QR as VA partners but now they’re as good as gone.

I don’t know what a QR sale has to do with anything.

EY are also gone because a significant value they had IMO is their ability to redeem reward seats in J & F via VFF. I do agree that EY is a shell of what it used to be and its going to be very very interesting when Riyadh Air appear on the circuit if they try to take on EK, QR & EY head on

 

[jase05]

EY are also gone because a significant value they had IMO is their ability to redeem reward seats in J & F via VFF. I do agree that EY is a shell of what it used to be and its going to be very very interesting when Riyadh Air appear on the circuit if they try to take on EK, QR & EY head on

EY still have pretty good availability around a month out on plenty of routes

 

[tmdl]

EY still have pretty good availability around a month out on plenty of routes

But that's the only thing they offer as they apparently only now release 30 days out, If QR or SQ did that same thing imagine how bad it would be

 

[HS-TQE]

EY were gone as a VA major partner when VA demoted them to minor status the moment they've signed up QR and EY over time were gradually reduced to a domestic unilateral codeshare partnership (EY still codeshares on VAd but VA replaced EY with QR entirely in the outbound direction).

EY redemptions are still available on Velocity (the Velocity CEO recognised some of their FFs still preferred EY not long after they signed up QR so Velocity kept them as a redemption partner).

 

[ben95]

SQ, like EK, is a major competitor to their business model. People said EY would coexist with QR as VA partners but now they’re as good as gone.

SQ's in a different position than EY when compared to QR though. EY's network is largley is subset of QR and their role is largely the same in their optimal onward destinations where as SQ is an important partnet for VA in Asia and China, especially without the HNA Group as redemption partner. The VFF program would lose a lot of value if it were to lose SQ or have restrictions put in place - and I'm not sure a 20% stake by QR would be enough for Bain to take that hit.

It appears that VA already tries to funnel traffic onto QR operated flights to Europe. I clicked through a few dates for next month and found all J inventory blocked out on SQ operated VA coded flights. Maybe that's a sign that VA is prioritising QR is the Europen direction?

 

[justinbrett]

SQ's in a different position than EY when compared to QR though. EY's network is largley is subset of QR and their role is largely the same in their optimal onward destinations where as SQ is an important partnet for VA in Asia and China, especially without the HNA Group as redemption partner. The VFF program would lose a lot of value if it were to lose SQ or have restrictions put in place - and I'm not sure a 20% stake by QR would be enough for Bain to take that hit.

It appears that VA already tries to funnel traffic onto QR operated flights to Europe. I clicked through a few dates for next month and found all J inventory blocked out on SQ operated VA coded flights. Maybe that's a sign that VA is prioritising QR is the Europen direction?

Yes, I agree. SQ serves both the Asian and the European markets. I don’t think QR cares too much about VA using SQ for Asian routes, but I think it’s perfectly possible they could carve Europe out of the agreement to force VA pax on QR, similar to how the QF/EK partnership excludes the Americas.

 

[buggy00]

Delta in talks to acquire 51% stake in Virgin? [RUMOUR] - Virgin Australia - Executive Traveller

Found this rumour with no backing In source. But what do people think about this spicy alternative?

 

[jrfsp]

Delta in talks to acquire 51% stake in Virgin? [RUMOUR] - Virgin Australia - Executive Traveller

Found this rumour with no backing In source. But what do people think about this spicy alternative?

I understand the DL rationale behind the stake in VS, but VA….i don’t see it, DL hasn’t shown much interest in The Australian market.

 

[ThatMrBlake]

Delta in talks to acquire 51% stake in Virgin? [RUMOUR] - Virgin Australia - Executive Traveller

Found this rumour with no backing In source. But what do people think about this spicy alternative?

Spicy but no strategic rationale behind it

 

[elanshin]

I understand the DL rationale behind the stake in VS, but VA….i don’t see it, DL hasn’t shown much interest in The Australian market.

I don't think DL has no interest, just how the hell do they break into the market when VA dropped them for UA. That's why they were even entertaining the idea of Rex.

That said probably a bit of a stretch to goto DL but who knows at the end of the day if Bain can get a big bite, they'll offload and to Bain it doesn't matter who bit.

 

[RooFlyer]

But what do people think about this spicy alternative?

Not as good as QR, as it would tilt VA towards Nth America rather than Europe (my interest), but still pretty good. Dunno what DL holds of Latam, but presumably would see a better integration to Sth America, too.

DL hasn’t shown much interest in The Australian market.

No, but given the chance to take 51% - some form of 'control' of the second Australian domestic carrier, that interest could change! Funnelling more of the lucrative trans-Pacific market their way.

 

[jase05]

Can’t see it happening but SkyTeam would be good for me

 

[Saab34]

That’s a lot of cash to spend to just get some extra feed on two flights a day into Oz.

Delta probably wouldn’t be a good partner for the long term. You only need to go back to the pandemic and see what they did with its VS stake, essentially left them out in the cold and refused to offer any financial assistance. Basically, when the parent was under stress, the investments below it took a back seat.

QR would be a much stronger partner. They wouldn’t dump VA when the times get tough also.

If a listing is delayed by another year. ALOT can happen in 12 months. Come back next year. Talks often come and go over time. Who knows where the world and markets will sit in 2025.

 

[PERLHR]

Everyone thinks it's outrageous that QR want 20 percent or less and that the government should stop it..yet no one says much about a US company and not very good airline holding over 50 percent ...thats funny! I know who i prefer....

 

[RooFlyer]

That’s a lot of cash to spend to just get some extra feed on two flights a day into Oz.

Doesn't USA/Australia have 'open skies', and airlines can increase capacity at will (question, not rhetorical). presumably DL would increase services if 'fed' by VA. Airlines like to expand ...

QR would be a much stronger partner. They wouldn’t dump VA when the times get tough also.

Agree on that.

 

[elanshin]

Everyone thinks it's outrageous that QR want 20 percent or less and that the government should stop it..yet no one says much about a US company holding over 50 percent ...thats funny! I know who i prefer....

? Why is that so strange to understand. State owned hyper rich airline that may or may not have unknown motives vs a major US publicly traded airline.

I mean have you seen who our official political allies are?

Edit: Also noone was going crazy over QR getting 20%. It was "they're going for a measured approach because they don't think they can get more".

People were a bit uneasy with QR taking Control (significantly more than 20%) and also didn't think the government would have any chance of rubber stamping that sort of deal.

 

[p--and--t]

Everyone thinks it's outrageous

Which everyone is this?

Let's stick to reality there is difference of opinion as in everything. Not always a rational basis or well founded but in a democracy people are entitled to a diversity of opinions.

 

[justinbrett]

Doesn't USA/Australia have 'open skies', and airlines can increase capacity at will (question, not rhetorical). presumably DL would increase services if 'fed' by VA. Airlines like to expand ...

Yes we do. And that’s the only reason I don’t dismiss this rumour entirely (still unlikely though).

With AA tied up with QF and UA with VA, DL is left out in the cold.

If they were to get VA back, especially now VA doesn’t operate long haul, they would definitely increase market share and could probably launch more routes and frequency. UA would be forced to retract.

Also I imagine a deal between a US private equity firm and a US airline would be a lot easier to close than one with the government of Qatar.

The ET forum post seems sceptical, quotes DL owning 51% of VS but I believe it’s 49%, and seems they’ve just matched the figure for VA. The size of the stake is not very credible, but I don’t rule out the comments about QR collapse and interest from DL.

 

[HS-TQE]

Delta in talks to acquire 51% stake in Virgin? [RUMOUR] - Virgin Australia - Executive Traveller

Found this rumour with no backing In source. But what do people think about this spicy alternative?

Wasn't that posted by a member here that's currently suspended?

 

[HS-TQE]

Yes we do. And that’s the only reason I don’t dismiss this rumour entirely (still unlikely though).

With AA tied up with QF and UA with VA, DL is left out in the cold.

If they were to get VA back, especially now VA doesn’t operate long haul, they would definitely increase market share and could probably launch more routes and frequency. UA would be forced to retract.

DL has been pretty resistant to Australian expansion post-Covid/VA and before that let VA do most of the JV work pre-Covid.
The double daily SYD services didn't exactly turn out well for them so 3x of those frequencies were transferred to the partial Queensland taxpayer-funded seasonal BNE-LAX.