p32 air oct10 6/10/08 17:55 Page 32
Air
Chris Gray
020 7921 8003
cgray@ttglive.com
For the latest news about flights, airlines and airports, visit ttglive.com/air
Virgin seeks a
Paddy Power: All
Quantum leap
‘bust’ bets are off
VIRGIN Atlantic is running a
marketing campaign capi-
talising on its appearance in
Chris Gray.
shortly before it went bust. And airlines feared
the new James Bond film A LEADING bookmaker has stopped taking being named on the site would undermine
Quantum of Solace. online bets on the next airline to go bust amid consumer confidence.
Bond actor Daniel Craig furious condemnation from the industry. Mike Carrivick, chief executive of Bar UK,
(pictured) flies Upper Class Paddy Power pulled the betting list from its said: “It is highly dangerous because it can
across the Atlantic in the film, and Virgin will be website as airline lobbying group Bar UK warned create doubt about a company and become a
showing behind-the-scenes clips on its flights as it risked tipping airlines into bankruptcy. self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s not illegal but it’s
part of its “You Only Live Once” campaign. It is understood one of the airlines identified extremely undesirable.”
The TV, print and poster campaign aims to as being likely to collapse was considering legal Flyglobespan last week issued a statement, in
persuade customers that if they are going to fly action against the bookmaker. response to speculation, saying it had no debt
they should do it in style with “James Bond’s Paddy Power had been taking bets on the and substantial cash reserves (TTG October 3).
favourite airline”. airlines for about a month and had singled out A spokesman said betting on the collapse of
Quantum of Solace opens on October 31. Air Berlin, Flyglobespan, SkyEurope and Spanair an airline and the job losses involved was “sick”.
as among the most likely to disappear. Paddy Power said it had taken the web page
The site took a flood of bets on XL collapsing down because the bet “had run its course”.
BA’s load factors
decrease to 74%
BRITISH Airways passenger numbers in premium
and economy fell last month by 5.6% to 2.8 mil-
lion compared with September last year.
Overall load factors fell 4.3 percentage points
to 74%. There was an 8.6% drop in traffic in pre-
mium classes and 4.1% in economy. The region
with the biggest percentage drop was Africa and
the Middle East, which fell 10% to 259,000.
The airline said long-haul premium traffic had
softened after the summer and forward bookings
were being hit by financial uncertainty, but BA
was on target to break even this year.
SkyEurope, one of the airlines that was on Paddy Power’s betting list, has secured a ¤10m loan and taken financial advice
SkyEurope asserts its financial future
EASTERN European airline SkyEurope has But a spokesman said SkyEurope had drawn getting payments from its credit card processing
claimed it could make a profit next year even if up a business plan for the 12 months to October company, but the problem was being resolved.
oil cost $150 a barrel. 2009 that envisaged it finishing the year in the He said speculation on websites about the air-
The airline, which flies to four destinations black even if oil hit $150 a barrel. line’s future had not affected bookings and it had
from Luton, has secured a ¤10 million bridging The plan includes the appointment of carried record passenger numbers in August.
loan to see it through the winter season. investment bank Rothschild to explore “strate- “The passenger does not need to be worried
There has been speculation that the airline could gic and financing alternatives”. because we have the plan in place and we will be
be in jeopardy as oil prices and falling demand The spokesman said part of SkyEurope’s recent around and we have summer 2009 on sale now,”
bite and as the industry heads into low season. cash flow difficulties had been due to delays in the spokesman added.
32 10.10.2008
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