This past week US Airways made it clear that it has more than a passive interest in acquiring bankrupt American Airlines. They had gone so far as to meet with American’s creditors to determine the viability of submitting a proposal to the bankruptcy court to acquire the airline. A week or 2 before that, US Airways had gone as far as registering various website addresses that included various combinations of the US Airways and American Airlines name.
Today, Bloomberg is reporting that IAG (parent of British Airways and Iberia) is looking at the possibility of acquiring a stake in American in order to prevent US Air from possibly pulling American Airlines from oneworld and bringing them to Star Alliance.
I thought it was interesting enough to see US Airways and Delta speculating about an American Airlines acquisition. Now it looks like British Airways wants to keep it all the family and acquire a stake in American. It would be a blocking gambit to prevent American Airlines from going to “enemy” alliances. No matter which way this jigsaw puzzle comes together, expect a regulatory nightmare for the approval process especially if British Airways is serious about it’s intentions.
With British Airways already dealing with anti-trust issues in their acquisition of BMI from Lufthansa (a decision must be issued by regulators by March 30), I was surprised to see British Airways jump right into the fray for the battle for American. Looks like they really, really, really want to keep the Star Alliance out of the UK. From their perspective, I fully understand the need for them to do this, but from a regulatory point of view, I really don’t know how they will pull it off. But it will make for great speculation in the weeks and months ahead.
What are your thoughts? How do you see the puzzle coming together??
@ Scottrick – I love the analogy!
If Star Wars has taught us anything, it’s that the Death Star (Alliance) is more than capable of destroying one world. It only runs into resistance when they rebuild it and try to destroy a second world. 😀
IAG certainly has the most financial heft to keep AA in OneWorld, correctly realizing that the alliance would be VERY severely hampered without AA in the fold.
If US were to attempt to acquire, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the proviso from the DoJ that they remain in OneWorld as a condition for approving the takeover.
@ Mike – I know in the early days of the speculation when AMR first filed, it was thought that perhaps US Air would by AMerican and head over to OW themselves…..
I wondered why a OW carrier hasn’t stepped up. I mean, JAL was important to the alliance, why isn’t AA?
Of course we don’t know what’s going on behind closed doors with US and OW.
My thoughts are that BA can’t buy more than 24.9% of AA, due to The Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938. Any trustee would be foolish to allow such an investment, because it would queer the deal with any other airline.