luv2ctheworld

Etihad has been picking winners for partnerships (not)...
https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisag...ays-collapses/

Air Berlin, Air Serbia, Alitalia, Jet Airways... I wonder how much money combined this has taken from their coffers... and what did Etihad get in return (not sarcasm... actually curious what their ROI winds up being).
And possibly would there have been decline in the hard/soft product had they just kept their cash in house instead.

tommy123

I'd have a guess at $5 billion . I never quite understood , why James Hogan the ex CEO wanted to buy into failing airlines .

NoY

Ego...

tommy123

Didn't he bring down Ansett and nearly bankrupt Gulf Air . With that reputation who in their right mind would employ him . Obviously the rulers in the UAE know better than me ..... Personally I think if he just kept building Etihad up , without all these wreckless acquisitions , ( the latest being Jet Air now grounded ) , Etihad would have remained a niche boutique airline , similar to what Oman air have turned out to be know ......So to summit up , James Hogan 0 , failures 3 .....Another interesting point is , what's going to happen to the 3 slots at LHR , now Jet is grounded and Etihad acquired them ...Surely not 7 daily flights to the UAE , they can't fill the current 4

sethMCOflyer

It's amazing they keep investing in these failing airlines when they can't even find a way of making money on their own.

ngfan

I always struggled to understand how any serious longterm financial benefit for EY would arise from James the Greatest and his taste for shopping minority shares of ailing airlines like Alitalia, Air Berlin or Darwin Airline aka Etihad Regional, esp. in light of the experience Swissair went through. A warmly welcomed white knight for them at the brink of bankruptcy but a disorienting headache for EY to get all those companies back on a financially viable track (still as a minority shareholder, go figure). Very similiar to Swissair's abysmal 'Hunter Strategy' in the 90's which Hogan of course always flatly denied though. This is an interesting read: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....act_id=3328520

Well, for anyone looking to be advised on how NOT to run an airline expansion strategy, of course you can hire him and some of his former subordinates from EY now for hard money as originators turned advisors "from a unique team with global experience at the highest levels within some of the best known businesses in the world" with his Knighthood Capital firm: James Hogan consulting on how to turn an airline expansion strategy into shambles .

Maybe Philippe Bruggisser and some guys from McKinsey can join Hogan's team to add some of their unique experiences...

Oh well, some people who really failed miserably still have the guts and chuzpah to pretend as being on top of the game - embarrassing hubris.

ft101

2 pairs up for sale currently. Oman Air paid $75m USD for a pair a couple of years ago so nice potential pickings.

csdf

Anecdotally, the flights to from LHR have been chock-a-block recently. Maybe it's the Easter holidays though - EY laid on an extra fourth daily flight in April.