IAG Merger

Shares in International Airlines Group (IAG) commenced trading today. IAG has been created as the new holding company for British Airways and Iberia, following the merger of the two companies.

The final legal steps were completed over the weekend, the end of a long and complex transaction process.

The IAG team also moved into our new accommodation on Friday, just along the road from Waterside, the BA headquarters building near Heathrow.

Congratulations to everyone who has worked so hard to bring IAG finally to life. Its been a long road but we got there in the end. In the words of Louis L’Amour, “There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning.”

Boarding pass

Went on my first flight with OpenSkies last month. Being based in London, there hadn’t been much occasion to use the service before. But heading out to New York for a Board meeting, I decided to take the time to make a quick detour via Paris.

The service was excellent in every way. Great seats, food and wine and good service on the ground too. Of particular note was the friendliness and professionalism of crew. Overall, superb.

For more information pop over to the OpenSkies website on https://www.flyopenskies.com/splash

Tailfins

We finally secured approval this week for an immunised deal with our alliance partners American Airlines and Iberia. It has been a long time coming. The final step was to secure approval from the US Department of Transport, which was granted last Tuesday evening, fourteen years after we first attempted to get a deal approved with American.

Better late than never.

BA Iberia merger

Last week was a busy one. On Sunday, I flew out to Mexico for a oneworld meeting and to welcome Mexicana into the alliance. I flew back via Madrid and arrived back in London just as the merger agreement between BA and Iberia was announced.

It’s taken a long time to get there, but fantastic news. Time to start learning Spanish!

BA1, ready to depart

I was at London City airport this morning to see off the first BA flight to New York. It took me over an hour and a half to get there from my office near Heathrow. Which is the point really – if you live or work on the east side of London, that’s how much advantage you get from using this new service compared to flying from Heathrow.

Cloud

Another set of flights moved across to terminal 5 this week, the biggest move since the first day. All went smoothly. The same cannot be said for the financial markets last week. ‘A week is a long time in politics’, they say. Nowadays a week is a long time, period.

Green

We switched a further 15 longhaul flights to T5 today – the first since the less than successful opening day. The media were on hand to write the “more chaos at T5 story” but left disappointed. It was a fabulous day for the airline and more importantly for our customers. The terminal and our operation worked pretty much flawlessly. One of the best days I can remember. I couldn’t resist snapping a photo in our operations centre today. Delayed flights show in red, early or on-time flights in green. Fantastic.

T5 departure concourse

Day three and things are going a little better with T5, but still extremely ‘fragile’. Here is a photo I took on the first morning, before any problems emerged. It is still such a wonderful terminal, I just hope the systems start working more reliably soon.

T5

Well, only a few hours to go before T5 is finally open for business. The first flight scheduled to arrive in T5 left Hong Kong 4 minutes early, so we’re off to a good start. I’m away to bed, since I need to get up at 3:15am (!) tomorrow. An exciting day ahead.