Corporate changes. Seasonal shifts
FOXTROTS
Fox – sly
Trots – left-leaning (Trotsky) plus its more insalubrious meaning
Foxtrots – leading the industry in a dance.
2005 November 30
Corporate changes. Seasonal shifts
Wow. Big changes in big travel companies; will certainly lead to other changes. Here’s a wrap-up:
- The Accor Group is changing its CEO this January. It was no great surprise that a nephew of one of the two founders will take over. Gilles Pelisson previously ran one of France’s three main telephone companies, but it seems his main qualification was that family link.
Expected to lose his job as head of Accor’s Club Med is Henri Giscard d’Estaing – who tried too hard to beat Pelisson into the top Accor job.
- New CEO at British Airways – Willie Walsh. WW previously ran Ireland’s Aer Lingus, which he turned into a type of low-fare airline; it is regarded in the industry as a successful transformation.
No clues yet on whether he will attempt similar at British Airways. But expect something, because BA’s traffic is not growing, and will indeed start falling as it increases fuel surcharges and pushes some passengers to low-fare airlines.
(LFAs do also have fuel surcharges but, smartly, pretend they do not. Some base fares have gone up, and then they are hiked up more quickly than before the fuel crisis.)
- Easyjet’s CEO, Ray Webster, leaves to return to his native New Zealand with a good reputation in the airline business.
His successor is Andrew Harrison. I think it’s a pity Easyjet could not find anyone from continental Europe. Maybe Easyjet itself has not realised it is no longer a British airline, but a European one. Want to fly Geneva-Barcelona? Berlin-Copenhagen? Paris-Nice? Then fly Easyjet – Europe’s first airline.
Is a man from a very-British motoring organisation, Royal Automobile Club, likely to have the experience necessary? And perhaps Easyjet does need someone with airline experience this time round.
Also, Harrison will need to decide how to match competition and continue to expand fast as fuel-driven operating costs increase, causing fare hikes, which slows growth in passengers.
- Meridien. Can probably claim a place in Guinness Book of Records as the most-sold hotel brand. Many think it is French (not least because of the ‘Le’ in front of its name) but that was a long time ago. (It was started by Air France.) Now just been bought from an investment company by a Starwood group company.
- In Asia, Colony Capital bought the Raffles and Swissotel hotel brands. Surely the question is which of these will be on-sold when?
- The Starwood group already has a cluster of hotel brands including Sheraton and Westin before it bought Meridien, see above. Then this past summer, a Starwood company also bought the Taittinger group hotels – which comprises over 800 hotels in Europe including three budget brands mainly in France, but also a few top hotels such as the Crillon in Paris.
There are too many options to try and foresee what changes this will bring – Meridien used for the better Taittinger hotels? Martinez a Westin (or St Regis, Starwood’s top brand)? But changes seem certain.
