Croatia, Adria and Montenegro in merger proposal
The Minister of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure in the Croatian government, Siniša Hajdaš-Dončić, has announced the possibility of merging Croatia Airlines, Adria Airways and Montenegro Airlines into a holding company. Speaking to the media over the weekend, Hajdaš-Dončić said that the situation within Croatia Airlines is tough but that some problems will be resolved once the new CEO and Board are named. However, the minister notes that if the new management fails solve the national carrier’s problems a merger between some of the airlines of the former Yugoslavia could be the key.The minister suggests for Croatia Airlines, Adria Airways and Montenegro Airlines to form a multinational holding company, similar to International Airlines Group, which has been created by British Airways and Spain’s Iberia. Hajdaš-Dončić emphasises that within this holding, Croatia Airlines would be the dominant carrier and would initially exclude Jat Airways from the arrangement. Both Croatia Airlines and Adria are members of Star Alliance. The announcement comes days before all the airlines of the former Yugoslavia, with the exception of B&H Airlines, sit down for talks in Budva over the weekend.
Reacting to the announcement from Croatia, Adria Airways said, “We know nothing about it. There have been no such talks”. Croatia Airlines and the Slovenian national carrier already cooperate on fleet exchanges. Croatia Airlines is currently using an Adria Airbus jet for its weekend flights to Istanbul. The idea to merge the national airlines of the former Yugoslavia came earlier in the year from the Association of European Airlines which warned that the carriers will go bust if they don’t put their difference aside and cooperate. All of the national airlines in the EX-YU region ended 2011 with multi million euro losses. As it stands now, 2012 is not looking any better.
Comments
That is only we could export all over the world.
Also, it is not like OU is a prime example of how to run an airline for them to lead the pack so...
And I do not think that anybody is giving any direct instructions to anybody. However, the conditions are made so as to make countries in the region(beit political, commercial or social moves) to behave on the way that would serve the interest of EU, more specifically Germany.
And, let's be open and honest here; leaders in political, commercial and social arenas in the region are sooooo dumb, soooo dumb for not realizing this.
Merge with whoever you want, agree on whoever will lead the merger, there is going to be no success in this business.
Hmmm...also a new airline called ANTI-JAT?
Croats and Slovenes again unite against
evil Serbians?
Well that nonsense comes out when gouvernments run airlines!
crap airline to the Albanians...
Isnt Adria the de facto national airline of Kosovo?!
Others above have rightly smelled a rat with this one - the fact this proposal has come up at a time when:
1) not ONE of the airlines proposed is profitable
2) there is no CEO at OU to steer the ship
3) this merger does nothing for fleet harmonisation
4) the exYU is one of the remaining battlegrounds left for the airline alliances in Europe
Merging unprofitable companies of any size does not suddenly make them profitable. There are too many risks at stake here, but as per normal I don't see this absurd proposal getting of the ground...
Let's wait and see what eventuates this (insert sarcasm here) exciting summit...
That would assume OU have independent thought and a business plan that works!
If they were competent they would not have driven their own airline into their current state.
We know how EasyJet and Ryanair came today through government support.
We should open our eyes.
Check for instance the case of Malev to see how EU is sucking the blood out of underdeveloped new member states. The EU prevented the Hungarian government from subsidizing the airline claiming that it is an illegal aid and this led to the grounding of the airline.
However, Budapest Airport is sold to a German company only with the condition that a dedicated amount of flights would take place at the airport and if this number is not reached the government is to pay a penalty to the airport. And when Malev is grounded, there is no way that this dedicated number will be reached. And the Hungarian government is now paying to the airport (owned by the Germans) even more than they would pay to aid Malev.
So, the EC who did not allow the government to pay to Malev and due to this thousands of Hungarians became unemployed and a whole industry is influenced but the EC saw no problem with allowing the government to pay to German owned airport.
I mean what else we need to say here.
We should not be very naive when it comes to EU. I am not saying everything should be as 30 years ago but still we should not allow the dreams EU is sugarcoating to us trick us.
Or a BMW as stated by a previous commentator.
Nobody urged Hungary to become a member of EU.
Its their own fault!
EU membership will also destroy Croatia and Serbia...
but when you ask people there everybody wants his country in EU!
EU membership is a well deserved punishment for being stupid!
i hate this! we didnt want no war in the 90s, the german made us fight! i mean, look at them, when germans meet dutch or danish people somewhere. you can see how much they dislike each other. germany still does not want to recognise the netherlands as a nation. on the other hand germany is officially called "the former alliance-ruled republic of germany" because of the danes.
this nation is full of problems with their neighbours and problems within its own boarders.
I am so glad I am from the balkans...
ziveli!
but when you ask people there everybody wants his country in EU! EU membership is a well deserved punishment for being stupid!"
Yes, and that's why democracy should be abolished cause masses are too stupid to decide on such things. They're influenced and brainwashed by whoever.
The people who influence vast majorities should be honorable enough to refuse offer of BMWs or 7 star holiday in the Caribbeans in return for selling their countries out to EU.
Democracy is a must have and the voice of people must be present in the governance of a country.
This would be so much more efficient.