Member Info for big-blue

7th December
In response to concerns a no-deal Brexit could cause delays in getting the vaccine into the UK, he said: "This is such an important product, it's probably perhaps the most important product, so we will look to ensure that those supplies are available in the UK in whatever circumstance."

Asked to confirm if this meant the armed forces would be used if needed, he said: "If we need to."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55213148

I bet ya there will armed escorts now!

New question, is the European Parliament about to force the entire commission to resign as in 1999? Remember that the commission has actually put in place export tracking allowing the prevention of export, irrespective of the latests assurances. Will their be protestor attacks on the convoys transporting Pfizer vaccine next week, EU preventing exports using thugs and anarchists? I wonder if Chinooks will be used instead of road transport. Previous convoys have been escorted by fleets of black BMWs with blacked out windows.

This is going to be a very difficult week.

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/brexit-britain-will-be-the-winner-in-the-eu-s-war-on-joe-biden

More to understand the inner workings of the EU and why I beleive BA and therefore IAG could be affected whilst the Commission still exists and the irrational minds continue unabated. There are warning signs all over the place that 'bad Europe' is unstable and prone to lashing out in the most unexpected way.

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_2531

ooops!

https://www.lse.co.uk/ShareChat.asp?ShareTicker=IAG&share=International-Airlines&thread=1F73DF0E-E06E-4903-8C16-C269B1471C0E&reply=true

Both parties have committed to ensuring a robust level playing field by maintaining high levels of protection in areas such as environmental protection, the fight against climate change and carbon pricing, social and labour rights, tax transparency and State aid, with effective, domestic enforcement, a binding dispute settlement mechanism and the possibility for both parties to take remedial measures.

https://finance.yahoo.com/finance/news/ryanair-ceo-predicts-problems-iag-151146835.html

We now need to keep our eyes on this more closely now.

"IAG, which also owns Iberia in Spain and Aer Lingus in Ireland, has previously said contingency plans have been agreed by relevant national regulators."

We shall see......

Actualy one more thing as by way of an example. When the oil spill happened in the Gulf of Mexico, Obama was quick of the mark referring to BP as British Patoleum and then set about trying to destroy BP. It was some time before the US administration got the message and receeded. Obama had a bee in his bonnet about the Brits and the history wrt 'black' people which coloured his reaction - for some weeks.
That is my fear with some of the 'bad EU' now following the events reacting to Astra's production issues and the speed which irt was turned on the UK.

Book closed.

Mind you, Qatar holding in IAG might make any bullying form the EU more troublesome. When I say 'EU' I am refering to the inner sanctum of fedralists deep inside the non-elected structure. I expect those structures and people to be gone in a few years with the Parlaiment the dominant power.
Anyway, as events have shown, keeping a close eye on details is required from all angles.
Here endeth the lesson.

I hope you are right Portland1, I hope the good side of the EU is dominante and the likes of IAG that have large 'British' assets on their portfolio are not treated any differently. I say that as a share holder and someone who loves the people and places in the EU. It is just a pity that a bad side to the EU has gone AWOL and looking through their eyes there is a danger the red mist comes down and all they see is flags.
I have used Ryanair many times, they are a functional flying bus and those second airport locations are often very convienent! They are a competitor in the broader sense that they fly people from one region to another and there is competition for the general movement of passangers between those regions.

"This is just rubbish, Ryanair doesn't compete with IAG/BA."

Sorry I am out of touch, I didn't realise BA do not fly any routes in EU anymore. When did they stop?

No, haven't sold since I looked at the last week's events as a classic dip which will be recovered when travel resumes (passports etc) but over a longer time base than originally planned. I could still be holding in 6 months if the sp maintains a steady ever upward trend.
I wouldn't say I am confusing BA and IAG, but from my experience there are plenty of people in Brussels that will as it suites them. BA has the union flag on the tail fin - that flag boils the brains of some! IAG may think that as an EU based business together with the clout of the Spanish government and its reps in the EU that it will be protected and the flag on the aircraft will be of no consequence. The soviet EU will not think twice about dumping IAG and throwing them to the wolves. They really won't. Protectionism is the name of the game with many in the EU. If hot heads in the commission see BA, irrespective who is the parent company, as a competative obstacle to other EU carriers (notably Ryanair) then expect clever clever moves to elbow out BA activities, using more unknown clauses in the Brexit deal.
I will be keeping a very close eye now to check whether red eyes turn to BA. Sorry, if they do IAG is on its own as far as the nationalastic side of EU is concerned, almost to be regarded as traitors to the big project for keeping BA afloat rather than sinking it. THAT is the mind set of some inside the EU.

I too would avoid EU stocks before this. My brief in out for IAG has ended up being extended a bit more than I wanted, and will still be a bit more. My target is 180, then hold as long as a rise continues to a new base level. I have experience around the inner core of the EU, they have a hatred of everything UK for not joining the Euro and the EU project not being able to take ownership of the London markets and income to fund the EU fantasy land. They specifically engineered a scam leaving Britain high and dry as a deisel engine manufacturer while they then changed the rules practically outlawing deisel. They were doing it in many industries always configuring rules and standards to suite continental europe business and exclude those who didn't do the full membership.
So investing in IAG was always a risk since their could be a backlash against BA. Even with my exposure to these people at the inner core of EU I am suprised how quickly and the astonishing extent to which they have turned aggressive.
I'll need to keep a carefull eye on all EU statements and consider bailing at a loss in case 'they' move on BA with more retaliation. These inner core are not nice people, they genuinely beleive they are the masters creating a socialist utopia and everyone else are little plebs to be controlled and organised for the betterment of the EU.

They 'reserve the right' still in their statement. Whether they back peddle in part or full, the key point is they even considered it. Further, the other acts today still allow member states to place export bans on vaccince consigments if they want to. That still stands.
Yes, there is a lot of smug, "I told you so" around tonight. But this is not rhetoric tonight. It is the true colour of these people. A small inner junta within the EU, but they currently pull the levers of power. The people of EU will dispense of this inner Junta in time, maybe very soon now.
I suspect ii in the city will also guage the situation in a similar fashion and we may see a very significant mark down of the sp as a result. This is a melt down of orders of magnitude.

Just look at the pig ignorant atitude of the EU. Closing the NI border to vaccine transport. After all the trouble THEY made about NI, to treat the agreement with such utter outright contempt and with such ease just shows what kind of people they are. Now they have given the go ahead for EU states to actualy STEAL vaccine consigments bound for Britain. This is an extremely aggressive act.
So when I warn about how BA might get treated... hear my words. The EU is suddenly turning very ugly and nasty. They have wanted to find a weapon to attack the British with for rejecting and actually leaving the EU project. These people are so arrogant in their beleif of self-importance and ownership of anything others have they would not think twice of restricting BA, stopping BA, banning BA, in fact engaing in any deceptive disruptive act that will give advantage to EU airlines. UK needs the support of the rest of the world through the UN to enforce legal compliance by the EU to everybody and accept the UK has left the EU. It was always inevitable that some live weapon fire would ensue from the EU against the UK. It would be brushed off as renegade action, but it looks like it is building up to be something more substantial. I see live ammunition being used to sequistrate vaccine stocks at this rate, possibly on UK soil.
There are some in the EU intent on kicking UK and anything associated with UK as hard as they can until we crawl back begging forgivness. There are a very large number of sympathisers in the UK for the EU to activate as sleeper agents. Sadely the aggerssive nature of the EU has been woken with the vaccine issue.

Yes, this is the one they have only just approved yet complain they will not be getting the full shippments.

Only JUST approving use, but complaining they don't have it. Go figure these people.

If it wasn't for this stupid distraction over extending travel bans for political reasons, and now the idiots in the Labour party jumping on what they think is a populists band wagon, this news on a COVID app would have much more of an impact.

However, this is not quite a vaccination passport, but by trialing the app and ironing out bugs early, I would expect the app would be ready to add on a vaccination passport. There are a number of competing apps like this out there, but BA trialing one gives a significant emphasis on this one as it is already being trialed with American. Having said that, what are the chances now the EU will refuse UK travellers because of the one dose policy as a way of retaliating because we no longer jump when told? The tourist sector may have something to say about that but I don't expect an easy return to flying into europe now. I wouldn't put it pastthem now to restrict whci airlines to use, BA not on the list of course. They have form with this kind of thing.

Now, news on slots is very important. Note what I was saying about the EU and how it might start trying to control routes to favour it's own EU based operators. Corruption is rife in the EU so various airports and operators may get special favours in return for...... The anti-Brexit anti-UK brigade, also rife across EU, may look at BA as a UK operator and elbow BA out of being able to operate form EU hubs. I will be very interested to see announcements from the EU as the skies open up again.
UAE flight ban was a bloody awful decision. Has the EU done the same????????

LONDON, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Britain is set to extend the
waiver on airport slots for the summer season, a statement from
Airport Coordination Limited (ACL) - an independent slot
co-ordination company, said on Friday.

Rules governing takeoff and landing rights at once-busy
airports have been suspended since early in the COVID-19
pandemic, freeing airlines from the obligation to use 80% of
their take-off and landing windows or else cede some to rivals.

ACL said that alleviation would be granted in the UK for the
Northern Summer 2021, subject to slots being returned three
weeks or more in advance of the planned operation. It added that
newly allocated slots are excluded from the alleviation.

It's not so muche the UAE in itself to stop the trend, I think it is the basis of the decision. Implies there will be wild cat restrictions and travel bans based on media led hysteria. One celeb seen in India, whole of India banned. Suddenly government intention and direction unknown.

"OMG, I am not used to such rises overnight. "

little blue pills, wink wink!

I think the surge from yesterday to be replicated today has been quashed due to the poor UAE decision. Yesterday is was beleived the quarantine measures were to be put used to control travel from high risk arease, that is in the government statement.
But today it appears that some of the quarantine measures are poltical. There is no valid reason to quarantine on a return from UAE. This now raises the question about where next. This was a spiteful and a very poor media led decision and shows the government is vunerable to being buffeted by headlines rather than facts and reality. I have been very supportive on the management of the pandemic given the almost total uncertaintiy on which to base decisions. But this is a bad one and worrying that there is a slipping of the grip on the agenda. Of course, it is also a sign of returning back to normal, where governance is more about playing the media than the real world.