It's 'Airline Consolidation Week'

Well, as fuel prices soar and the economic black clouds gather, everybody in the aviation industry has been talking about a period of airline mergers - with those smaller airlines who fail to find a partner, being left out in the cold to wither and die.

So this observation is far from newsworthy, but I'm struck with the sychronicity of news items this Monday morning...

• BA has completed its purchase of the French regional airline, L'Avion. (Travel Daily)
  
  
• China Eastern Airlines and Shanghai Airways are rumoured to be about to merge (Travel Daily & numerous Asian news outlets)
  
  
• Austrian Airlines has been advised by management consultants it needs to be taken over by Lufthansa in order to survive (Expatica)
  
  
• Ryanair shares nosedived this morning, knocking a fifth off the value of the airline, when they revealed a €90.5m loss for the first quarter of this year. (Telegraph)
  
  
• The new and outgoing chief executives of Australian airline Qantas predicted today that soaring fuel prices will help spur a new wave of airline mergers, including for their own carrier. (AFP)
  
  
• The European Commission has set a deadline (6 Aug) to speed up its inquiry into U.S.-based Delta Air Lines's proposed merger with Northwest Airlines. (Forbes)
  
  

---- Postscript Tues 29 July, 2008 ----

Ah, ok.... we can now add to that list British Airways and Iberia. So Airline Consolidation Week is well underway!