KLM Flying Dutchman - BA-KLM Merger Talks on Again?

British Airways will soon renew merger talks with Dutch rival KLM KLM), the Independent on Sunday reported, without citing sources. Talks between the airlines broke apart in 2000. Meanwhile, BA is in talks with German tourism operator Tui to sell its Deutsche BA subsidiary it unsuccessfully tried to sell to EasyJet, the Financial Times said on Monday.


http://custom.marketwatch.com/custom/excite-com/news-story.asp?dateid=37704.1082175926-803187991&alias=/ht/nw

yawn...maybe the 17th. time will be the charm. NOT !!!

It seems that BA are keen for KLM to join OW...but cite major stumbling blocks.What would they be ?..apart from NW etc.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by mike turnbull:
It seems that BA are keen for KLM to join OW...but cite major stumbling blocks.What would they be ?..apart from NW etc.</font>

Lots actually. There are competition issues, pricing, landing rights, control over the company, national identity, different standards of service, aviation regulations, etc..

BA denies all...

http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/business.cfm?id=352182003

KLM said that it did not plan to merge with BA, Europe's biggest airline, but that it was in talks with BA and AF to join either One World or SkyTeam alliances.

KLM has the industry's oldest revenue-sharing partnership with NW. BA officials were not immediately available to comment.

Source: Bloomberg

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">
different standards of service
</font>

That was my first thought. They have no premier F suites. Their WBC is in line with NW's. They'd have to bring their cabins up to par with BA/CX/QF.