British Airways and Iberia
英国航空&伊比利亚航空
Flying in formation
整队齐飞
Jul 30th 2008 | PARIS
From The Economist print edition
British Airways and Iberia bow to economic and strategic necessity
英国航空&伊比利亚航空 –出于经济和战略需要的妥协
THERE is nothing like high oil prices, it would seem, to free a European airline from protective national sentiment. Late last year British Airways (BA) backed away from a bid it had made with four private-equity firms for Iberia, Spain’s flag carrier, after Caja Madrid, a Spanish bank with political connections, bought a large defensive stake. This week, with the price of oil up 25% and BA and Iberia shares down 25% and 37% respectively, the two firms said they were in talks about an all-share merger. Both companies’ boards support the deal, as does Caja Madrid.
似乎没有什么能像居高不下的油价一样，能将一条欧洲航线从一种保护性的民族主义情绪解放出来。去年年末，英航逐渐放弃了和另外四家私人股本公司一起对西班牙国有航空公司–伊比利亚航空的竞购。而马德里银行（一家具有政治关系的西班牙银行），买走了大量的防御性股份。这周，伴随油价25% 涨幅，英航和伊比利亚的股价分别下降的25%和37%。这两家公司表示他们正处于全股融合的洽谈中。包括马德里银行在内，两家公司的董事会都将支持这项决议。
In July Martin Broughton, BA’s chairman, said the firm faced “perhaps the biggest crisis the aviation industry has ever known”. As well as soaring fuel costs, airlines are bracing themselves for weakening consumer demand. Cost savings and revenue gains from a merger will help BA and Iberia mitigate the pain.
7月，英航主席Martin Broughton表示，”公司正面临着航空界有史以来最大的危机”。一边是飙升的油价，另一边又不得不面对日益疲软的消费需求。由合并而带来的成本降低和收入增加将有助于减轻英航和伊比利亚痛苦。
From a strategic point of view, too, both BA and Iberia badly need more bulk. The smaller of the two, Iberia has lost market share in Spain and is struggling to compete with low-cost carriers. Europe’s two biggest airlines, Air France-KLM and Lufthansa, both completed cross-border mergers in recent years, relegating BA from first to third place in Europe, and making it look increasingly left out as the industry consolidated. Had Iberia fallen to one of BA’s European rivals, its position would have been badly weakened. And BA needs a new avenue for growth now that a third runway at Heathrow looks unlikely. Iberia will bring it extra capacity at Madrid Barajas airport, which has four runways, and fast-growing long-haul routes between Spain and Latin America.
同样，从战略角度来看，英航和伊比利亚都急需扩大规模。规模较小的伊比利亚已经失去了在西班牙的市场份额，并且正在于其他低成本的运输公司的竞争中苦苦求生。作为欧洲最大两家航空公司，法-荷航空和汉莎航空，在近些年，实现了跨国兼并，使得英航失去了欧洲航空界的头把交椅，而只能屈居第三，并且随着航空业的统一，关注英航的目光就显得更加少了。假使伊比利亚成为英航的欧洲对手之一，它的地位将受到极大的动摇。而且英航需要寻求一条实现增长的新的途径，寄希望于西斯罗机场的第三条跑道则显得不太现实。伊比利亚将为马德里的Barajas机场注入新的活力，Barajas拥有四条跑道和从西班牙到拉丁美洲的快速增长的持久航线。
As is customary in cross-border airline mergers, BA and Iberia will merge financially, but not operationally-at least in the short term. “They’ve put rings on each others’ fingers, but we may have to wait for several years for the consummation,” says Rigas Doganis, an aviation-industry commentator. A holding company will own the two airlines, but their brands will survive, and day-to-day operations will be managed separately。
作为航空界跨国兼并的惯例，英航和伊比利亚的合并只是财政上，而并非实际运作，至少短期内如此。Rigas Donganis，一位航空界的分析家，评论到，”他们已经为交换了各自的戒指，但最终的美满我们可能还要等上几年。”这两家公司由一家控股公司拥有，但各自的招牌仍然保留，并且保持各自独立的日常运作。
Savings will come from combining back-office activities and from joint purchasing of aircraft, fuel and ground services. Joint purchasing of aircraft, potentially the biggest source of savings, may take some time, however, says Robert Cullemore of Aviation Economics, a consultancy. Air France and KLM, he points out, still announce their orders for new planes separately, four years after merging. On the revenue side, the merger will reduce competition on routes where BA and Iberia both operate, letting them raise prices。
节省的开支来自事务部门活动的合并，以及联合购买飞机，燃料和地勤服务。作为航空经济的一名咨询师，Robert Cullemore说到，联合购买飞机的确会省上一大笔钱，但却有可能要多花一点时间。
他指出，即使在合并四年之后，法-荷航空仍然各自分别订购新的飞机。在收入方面，合并将减少英航和伊比利亚在共有航线上的竞争，并且提价。
Similar “half merger” strategies produced better results than expected for Air France-KLM and Lufthansa, which took over Swiss International Airlines in 2005. But industry observers question whether BA and Iberia will reap similar benefits. The two airlines already operate an alliance on the London-Madrid route and divide the profits, notes Geoff van Klaveren, an aviation analyst at Exane BNP Paribas, so there are few further synergies to be had there. And they have fewer long-haul flights in common than Air France and KLM did when they merged, so there is less scope for combining flights.
类似的”半兼并”策略，为法-荷航空和汉莎航空带来了意想不到的好处，他们在2005年接管了瑞士国际航空，但是业内的观察家们就英航和伊比利亚能否收获同样的果实产生了质疑。Geoff van Klaveren，一位来自Exane BNP Paribas的分析家说到，这两家公司已经对于伦敦-马德里航线形成了联盟并分享收益。所以更进一步的协作不被抱有希望。与法航与荷航的兼并相比，他们拥有更少的共同的持久航线，所以航线合并的空间更小。
Now that Spain has allowed economic reality to prevail over politics, another struggling airline stands out all the more starkly: Italy’s flag-carrier, Alitalia, which is losing over euro 1m（$1.6m） a day. Air France-KLM offered to buy it but Silvio Berlusconi, who was elected prime minister soon afterwards, blocked the deal. Oil prices have fallen from their recent peaks, but perhaps they are still high enough to change minds in Rome, just as they did in Madrid.
既然西班牙已经把经济放在了首位，另一家生计维艰的航空公司的出现就更显得不合时宜：Alitalia，一家意大利的国航公司，每天损失高达160万美元。法荷航空曾有意购买这家公司，但这一决议被后来当选为总理的Silvio Berlusconi阻止。油价已经从最近的高点回落，但也许它们仍在影响那些身处罗马的决策者们，就像在马德里发生的这一切。
译者：topsun http://www.ecocn.org/forum/viewthread.php?tid=13057&extra=page%3D1