Originally Posted by
tobsw
That's all hypothetical. First, merger/acquisition needs to be approved by competence authorities (Spain, EU, USA, and likely Brasil). What happens then, no one really knows. It seems that IB (IAG) has guaranteed at least one year of status quo at UX if acquisition is approved (that's based on information disclosed by the TCP union, which are currently negotiating their deal with UX).
I agree. But IAG seems pretty confident the merger will be approved quite easily. Their main point is that IB+UX is still smaller in passengers share of Madrid than AF in Paris, KL in Amsterdam, BA in Heathrow and LH in Munich and Frankfurt. They will probably have to give up some domestic routes which is not a big blow as liberalisation of the high speed train routes (10€ MAD-BCN) will kill the plane there.
Originally Posted by
craigthemif
I doubt that the LCCs want to spend a penny on improvements at T1/2/3 that result in higher fees.
T4/T4S? I struggle to imagine it so full of long-haul birds that expansion is really necessary, even with the UX merger (minus whatever is divested to keep competition authorities happy).
It is the softer bits - passport control, luggage handling, etc. - that really need work...
Apparently T4S is quite full, specially at peak times. T4 not that much.
I do really hope luggage handling in T4/T4S gets fixed. Is the worst part of an otherwise quite nice terminal.