Originally Posted by
Pilot37
IAG buying EI had the benefit of a huge presence of FR at Dublin (and other Irish airports) which massively limits EI’s ability to charge people whatever they want to exit the Island, so they were pretty confident reasonable airfares and competition would remain. TAP control 48% of the very limited slots at LIS, while FR control 10% and EZY have 1.68%, so whomever buys TAP will probably need to give up some additional slots to other airlines. I would think LH group will focus on the integration of ITA, now that has been approved, leaving AF/KLM and IAG to battle it out for TAP.
Pilot37
KL/AF are in the midst of integrating SK and less further along than LH with AZ.Come to think of it... what does TP offer IAG in essence…or to any others? I can see the benefits from EI v/v BA as the country has a firm relationship with the UK and thus there is a natural traffic pattern.
What does TP bring to the table apart from some TATL routes between Portugal and Brazil? Brazil’s biggest trading partner in Europe is The Netherlands so I could see KL being interested. And as a member of *A LH Group already has ties with TP. Having lost SK, I get the feeling they won’t want to lose any more traffic from the Alliance, if it makes sense.
Does TP even have a place as a standalone carrier inthe next decade?