The new and outgoing chief executives of Australian airline Qantas said yesterday that soaring fuel prices would help spur a new wave of airline mergers, including for their own carrier.
Chief executive-designate Alan Joyce and outgoing head Geoff Dixon agreed that rising oil prices would join with other market forces to prompt other carriers to consolidate along the lines of Air France-KLM.
“I fundamentally believe that with the high fuel prices we have, if that continues, that a lot of airlines are not economic if they stand alone, that consolidation is a way for a lot of the airlines to go,” Joyce said.
“I think Qantas will keep an eye out for opportunities ... in the future,” he said, adding that the “gyrations of oil price could see anything happen in the future.”
French carrier Air France and Dutch airline KLM merged in 2004 to become the biggest airline in the world.
Dixon, who had led Qantas since 2000, said the pace of mergers would pick up in coming years and that the “flying kangaroo” would not be exempt.
“I think there will be consolidation at a more rapid pace,” Dixon told the same press conference. “I do not believe that Qantas will not ... consolidate with another airline at sometime in the future.”
The partner and timing for a possible Qantas merger would depend on issues between the carriers involved but also on governments allowing such moves in an industry that features many state-owned flag carriers, he said.
Dixon said last week that about 100,000 jobs would be cut in the global aviation industry by the end of this calendar year.
He has also said that consolidation would happen quickly leaving all but a few large players remaining alongside Middle Eastern carriers, which Dixon has said would remain propped up by their governments.
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