How Do Airlines Prepare For The New Environment? Operational - Assessing Strategic Options

Whatever the status of disruption in the short and medium term, what can airlines do to prepare for a new environment which will exist in 2025? Creating a bridge to the future. Getting it right now will not just be optional, but a matter of survival – or not. As the old system dies, there will be casualties. This Board meeting will explore the options available to airline managements, notably the shape of alliances and airline partnering, the role of equity acquisitions, how regulatory bodies will view JVs; can inter-governmental bilateral relations adapt fast enough to allow airlines the scope to prepare for the future. Is there scope for large non-airline investors to help?

• What are the pre-requisites for successful partnerships as a platform to a more viable future?
• Should cross-border JVs be adapted formally into bilateral agreements?
• Are JVs the future (with potential for further equity links)?
• Where do the anti-trust bodies sit now – what attitudes are they exhibiting towards JVs?
• Is it useful to plan on the assumption that O&C rules will be reduced or removed – and if so what can be done?

Possible Case Studies #1: What’s the future on the North Atlantic? The new international battleground. Norwegian has added new trans-Atlantic competition to a dozen markets, and has 100 B737MAX aircraft it will use to the US. Meanwhile, British Airways is now responding with new flights to non-traditional markets like Fort Lauderdale and Oakland. Wow Air and Thomas Cook are adding competition, and JetBlue is threatening to use A321neos across the Atlantic. Possible Case Studies #2: Chinese airlines and long haul lower cost Asian carriers are becoming powerful on the Pacific and European routes. How do foreign secure viable positions in these markets. Possible Case Studies #3: Gulf airlines are the most efficiently positioned geographically and in terms of fleets and cost bases. There are only three (along with the other super-connector, Turkish Airlines); what partnership options present themselves – or should they be stopped on the grounds of unfair competition? Chairman: CAPA - Centre for Aviation, Executive Chairman, Peter Harbison Third parties: 

• Aeroflot, Deputy General Director for Strategy & Alliances, Giorgio Callegari
• European Commission, Director General MOVE, Henrik Hololei
• IAG, CEO, Willie Walsh
• Irish Aviation Authority, Chief Executive, Eamonn Brennan
• Malaysia Airlines, Group MD & CEO, Peter Bellew