Originally Posted by
San Gottardo
Would be interesting to see how IAG and the Lufthansa Group of companies do in comparison.
I know that there was a huge amount of resentment amongst some Iberia staff to the cuts imposed by Wee Willie Walsh but at least IAG now has Vueling in there to bolster the "Spanish-ness" of the group, and the HQ is in Madrid - so I would guess that IAG is more "balanced" than is AF-KLM.
As for the Lufthansa Group - and even given that they have now fully taken over brussels airlines - I would guess that there is a greater degree of linguistic and cultural similarity amongst the various airlines. (Of course, there are tensions in any group, and particularly when low cost and full service airlines are mixed together,e tc - but I don't think IAG or Lufthansa Group are grappling with quite the level of existential angst that seems to plague the AF-KL "fusion").
And in IAG and Lufthansa group, there are several "partners", whereas in AF-KLM, it is overwhelmingly just Air France and KLM - so if there is friction in other groups, the opponents may vary on occasion, but in AF-KLM, it's *always* Paris v Amsterdam. Us vs them.