Euro airline's planned get together...

Only in europe....

From: http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/030926/air_france_klm_1.html

Alitalia has expressed interest in joining KLM and Air France in a three-way...


Seriously though, they plan to have a single holding which would own the
respective airlines, each of which would retain its national identity.

With current rules in europe, would each airline still be required to be at
least 50.1% owned by shareholders of their respective nation (in order to
retain access to negotiated rights between countries) ? Would KLM still be
able to use its Netherland-USA rights even if more than 50% of KLM is held by
French ?

If the 50% limit is still applicable, it would mean that the holding company
would be limited in how much it owns each airline to ensure that each airline
is still more than 50% owned by locals.

However, in the case of KLM, I read that KLM shareholders would end up owning
about 15% of the central holding company. Would this allow the holding to
exceed the 50% mark since part of itself would be Dutch ? Or woud the entity
be considered "100% foreign" from the Dutch perspective the minute Dutch have
less than 50% ownership ?


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a gentle reminder that tOo MuCh SeX mAkEs YoUr EyEs Go FuNny

AJC wrote:
As I understand it both the Netherlands and France have 'open skies'
agreements so the ownership/nationality of the airlines is not an
issue.


Perhaps between NL and FR, but if KLM, as a dutch airline has rights to fly to
some distant country, won't those rights be lost if KLM becomes French owned ?
(same applies to Alitalia).

It seems that Air France, being the much bigger airline won't have much
problems with ownership since the holding company would be held primarily by
Air France shareholders.

How does this compare to the SAS experience, where that airline is (or at
least was for many years) essentially a holding company of a Swedish, a
Norwegian, and a Danish airline?


"Eggplant Earrings" wrote in message
...
Only in europe....

From: http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/030926/air_france_klm_1.html

Alitalia has expressed interest in joining KLM and Air France in a
three-way...


Seriously though, they plan to have a single holding which would own the
respective airlines, each of which would retain its national identity.

With current rules in europe, would each airline still be required to be
at
least 50.1% owned by shareholders of their respective nation (in order to
retain access to negotiated rights between countries) ? Would KLM still
be
able to use its Netherland-USA rights even if more than 50% of KLM is held
by
French ?

If the 50% limit is still applicable, it would mean that the holding
company
would be limited in how much it owns each airline to ensure that each
airline
is still more than 50% owned by locals.

However, in the case of KLM, I read that KLM shareholders would end up
owning
about 15% of the central holding company. Would this allow the holding to
exceed the 50% mark since part of itself would be Dutch ? Or woud the
entity
be considered "100% foreign" from the Dutch perspective the minute Dutch
have
less than 50% ownership ?


------------------
a gentle reminder that tOo MuCh SeX mAkEs YoUr EyEs Go FuNny