easyJet seeking sweeteners from airport owners for new HQ
easyJet PLC, the no-frills airline, is seeking financial sweeteners from airport operators BAA PLC and TBI PLC to establish a new common headquarters following its takeover of discount rival Go-Fly Ltd, easyJet spokesman Toby Nicol told AFX News.
easyJet's current base is Luton, 71% owned by TBI, while Go is based at Stansted, owned by BAA PLC.
"We're looking into both Stansted and Luton as options," said Nicol.
"Airport offices and infrastructure are fairly expensive so we'll be speaking to airports about what they can do to help us out, given that we'll be locating significant airlines at their airport."
Nicol said a decision will be made within the next couple of months.
easyJet's £374 million purchase of Go is expected to complete later this month or at the beginning of August when all regulatory approvals are received.
The airline has already received clearance from the Czech Republic and Spain. The last hurdle is the UK authorities.
"We've heard nothing from the (UK) competition authorities which would imply they would look negatively on the merger. So we're confident that within the next couple of weeks we'll have that (approval) and we can get the deal done."
Barbara Cassani, Go's chief executive, and Andrew Cowen, finance director, will depart as soon as the deal is completed.
However, several of Go's managers are taking top positions in the enlarged group.
Nicol confirmed that on completion Ed Winter will become acting chief executive of Go and lead its integration into easyJet; while David Magliano and Dominic Paul will be sales and marketing director and customer services director for the enlarged group respectively.
The spokesman pointed out that easyJet has been able to avoid wide scale defections of managers.
"We're probably 90% of the way through sorting out the second tier of management. Most people know what their jobs are."
Nicol said it is too early to say what elements of Go's customer service will be retained.
"There will be bits of what Go do which we don't do which come over to easyJet," he noted, pointing out that a decision will have to be made regarding allocated seats which Go currently provides, but easyJet does not.
Earlier, easyJet revealed it carried 958,857 passengers in June, an increase of 51.5% on last year.
June's load factor - the number of passengers as a proportion of available seats - was 86.6%, slightly up from 86.5% last year.
The rolling 12-month passenger total was 9,026,997, with a load factor of 84.1%.
Meanwhile, Go-Fly said it carried 550,749 passengers in June, an increase of 71.8% on last year.
Yesterday, easyJet's no-frills rival Ryanair Holdings PLC said it carried 34% more passengers in June compared to last year.
On Tuesday national carrier British Airways PLC said its June passenger traffic was down 13.1%. It blamed air traffic control disruption and the World Cup and Golden Jubilee celebrations for keeping people away.
At 11.27 am shares in easyJet were up 26 pence, or 8.4%, at 337. The stock has come off a 2002 high of 504.
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Posts: 7,536
By: KabirT - 5th July 2002 at 15:47
easyJet seeking sweeteners from airport owners for new HQ
easyJet PLC, the no-frills airline, is seeking financial sweeteners from airport operators BAA PLC and TBI PLC to establish a new common headquarters following its takeover of discount rival Go-Fly Ltd, easyJet spokesman Toby Nicol told AFX News.
easyJet's current base is Luton, 71% owned by TBI, while Go is based at Stansted, owned by BAA PLC.
"We're looking into both Stansted and Luton as options," said Nicol.
"Airport offices and infrastructure are fairly expensive so we'll be speaking to airports about what they can do to help us out, given that we'll be locating significant airlines at their airport."
Nicol said a decision will be made within the next couple of months.
easyJet's £374 million purchase of Go is expected to complete later this month or at the beginning of August when all regulatory approvals are received.
The airline has already received clearance from the Czech Republic and Spain. The last hurdle is the UK authorities.
"We've heard nothing from the (UK) competition authorities which would imply they would look negatively on the merger. So we're confident that within the next couple of weeks we'll have that (approval) and we can get the deal done."
Barbara Cassani, Go's chief executive, and Andrew Cowen, finance director, will depart as soon as the deal is completed.
However, several of Go's managers are taking top positions in the enlarged group.
Nicol confirmed that on completion Ed Winter will become acting chief executive of Go and lead its integration into easyJet; while David Magliano and Dominic Paul will be sales and marketing director and customer services director for the enlarged group respectively.
The spokesman pointed out that easyJet has been able to avoid wide scale defections of managers.
"We're probably 90% of the way through sorting out the second tier of management. Most people know what their jobs are."
Nicol said it is too early to say what elements of Go's customer service will be retained.
"There will be bits of what Go do which we don't do which come over to easyJet," he noted, pointing out that a decision will have to be made regarding allocated seats which Go currently provides, but easyJet does not.
Earlier, easyJet revealed it carried 958,857 passengers in June, an increase of 51.5% on last year.
June's load factor - the number of passengers as a proportion of available seats - was 86.6%, slightly up from 86.5% last year.
The rolling 12-month passenger total was 9,026,997, with a load factor of 84.1%.
Meanwhile, Go-Fly said it carried 550,749 passengers in June, an increase of 71.8% on last year.
Yesterday, easyJet's no-frills rival Ryanair Holdings PLC said it carried 34% more passengers in June compared to last year.
On Tuesday national carrier British Airways PLC said its June passenger traffic was down 13.1%. It blamed air traffic control disruption and the World Cup and Golden Jubilee celebrations for keeping people away.
At 11.27 am shares in easyJet were up 26 pence, or 8.4%, at 337. The stock has come off a 2002 high of 504.
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