Good stuff from yesterday, a lot of interesting items.
Air Berlin to Join OneWorld
What an impressive run OneWorld has seen over the last two weeks. Air Berlin is expected to get an official invitation by OneWorld today (Tuesday) to join the alliance and get access to additional destinations through the extensive network of the smallest airline network.
The invitation seems logical – AB is already in a partnership with Russian carrier S7 (expected to join
OneWorld with full rights by the end of 2010) and the AA/BA/IB carrier doesn’t really have a good partnership in Germany. A few slots might be cut off, especially at TXL, but overall, that will open the door to one of the biggest markets in the world.
Article: http://bit.ly/abSIEi
India’s No. 1 OTA Files for IPO
Just turning 10 this year, the biggest Indian OTA is headed for an IPO at Nasdaq (ticker MMYT). MakeMyTrip claims to have captured over 50% of domestic and international travel and takes pride for being ahead of Yatra.com (No. 2) and Cleartrip.com (No. 3).
The pre-money market caps puts the company at $400 million (a nice exit for the investors – the Tiger Fund, Sierra Ventures, SAIF, and Hellion Venture Partners — a combined three-round investment of $40 m). MakeMyTrip has not been profitable, but the registered losses in a troubled industry do not seem to scare off interest – about $10 m in the red for 2009 and expected $6 m in 2010.
Article: http://bit.ly/96F53I
Industry Notables
Sabre, Amadeus, and Travelport conspicuously come up with exactly the same wording on Dennis Schaal’s request to comment whether they will be joining the Open AXIS Group. http://bit.ly/bpvKYZ
Singapore Airlines hits $184.7 m in profit for Q2 2010, focused on full-year profitability and maybe a change of guard – Mr. Chew Choon Seng, SQ’s CEO, might be stepping down in December, 2010. http://bit.ly/bpvKYZ
Qunar.com, the biggest Chinese meta-search engine, tests a network management tool in partnership with Nokia. http://bit.ly/aYqppY
jetBlue praises Sabre for SabreSonic, happy that the host system allows them complicated pricing for Extra
Legroom Seats. The airline listed about $2 million in SabreSonic-related expenses in their Q2 2010 statement. http://bit.ly/a37D7B
– see jetBlue’s snack packs offered on flights that are more than 3 h and 45 min. http://bit.ly/cYhA5b
Tiger Airways leads the way in Ancillary revenue as percentage of total revenue (19.4%) in Asia. http://bit.ly/aUdIo4
Aer Lingus on track to achieve full-year profitability. http://bit.ly/djUuPj
Have a Laugh (or a few)
SouthWest, in an attempt to curb yet another social media flurry, bumps a skinny lady in order to accommodate an overweight passenger, requiring 2 seats. http://bit.ly/9x516F
Ryanair passenger complains about food, gets arrested upon landing. http://bit.ly/9WcYzE
Delta passenger posts a video on youtube after DL plane was kept on the tarmac for 3 hours without any air conditioning. Check out how much the guy is sweating. http://bit.ly/9dKteO
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