I was amused to read today that two banks are bigging up British Airways by supporting their good intentions.
First, Citigroup has created a consortia to buy Gatwick Airport and persuaded former BA CEO, Bob Ayling, to join them.
Second, Caja Madrid is a major shareholder in Iberia Airlines who BA want to merge with, along with Quantas, American Airlines and any other big One World Alliance members. Therefore BA have been extra nice to Senor Miguel Blesa, the bank's chairman, who says that he fully expects the deal to go ahead.
Seems clear to me.
The next time you're lucky enough to be dragged out of the mire of World Traveller, World Traveller Plus or Club World, to sneak a peek into the champagne-swilling caviar-guzzling denizens of First Class ... expect to see a few bankers up there, courtesy of BA's soon to be introduced "free upgrade for nice banking friends" policy.
Beats the credit crunch blues, and also makes the bank look good as they can sell their private Lear Jets to boost the bank's balance sheets.
Apparently, United Airlines are looking for a good deal, anyone?
Chris M Skinner
Chris Skinner is best known as an independent commentator on the financial markets through his blog, TheFinanser.com, as author of the bestselling book Digital Bank, and Chair of the European networking forum the Financial Services Club. He has been voted one of the most influential people in banking by The Financial Brand (as well as one of the best blogs), a FinTech Titan (Next Bank), one of the Fintech Leaders you need to follow (City AM, Deluxe and Jax Finance), as well as one of the Top 40 most influential people in financial technology by the Wall Street Journal's Financial News. To learn more click here...