Alex Bainbridge's Musings on travel ecommerce blog
Musings on travel ecommerce blog
Blog home  Blog home

Look away if you are an airline…. you won’t want to read this

Friday, September 12th, 2008

I am sorry. Yes this is bad taste. Indeed so bad taste that you are unlikely to find it featured in any travel trade press - hence I feel I am doing a bit of public service by distributing them here.

Here are the current odds for the next airline to officially go into administration:

SkyEurope  5 - 2 
Alitalia  4 - 1 
Air Berlin  7 - 1
Spanair  9 - 1 
Vueling Airlines  10 - 1 
Clickair  10 - 1
LOT  10 - 1 
Olympic  12 - 1
Germanwings  12 - 1
Malev  14 - 1 
JetBlue  14 - 1 
Aeroflot  14 - 1 
Aer Arann  16 - 1 
Scandinavian airlines  16 - 1 
Jetstar  16 - 1
United Airlines  16 - 1
Flybe  20 - 1 
Czech Airlines  33 - 1
BMI  40 - 1 
Aer Lingus  40 - 1 
Qantas  50 - 1 
Virgin Atlantic  66 - 1 
easyJet  66 - 1 
Lufthansa  100 - 1 
BA  100 - 1 
Air France  100 - 1 
Ryanair  100 - 1 

Source - PaddyPower - where you can bet on these odds if you so wish….. oh dear

XL - My thoughts are with you.


If you want to be notified next time something is published sign up for email alerts or subscribe to the RSS feed. Thank you for reading!





More posts (maybe related, maybe not)


18 Responses to “Look away if you are an airline…. you won’t want to read this”


  1. September 12th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
    Kevin May

    Oh, you’re so big and brave, Alex.

    We, the toothless and self-serving trade press are so scared to run such a tasteless yet witty and insightful post.

    Of course, we could’ve simply been too busy writing our own coverage of today’s events to bother with this.

    what price on the tour operators then? :-)

  2. September 12th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
    Alex Bainbridge

    It was actually a compliment!

    :)

  3. September 12th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
    Kevin May

    I am truly stunned - a compliment to the trade press from Musings. An industry first, as they say. :-)

  4. September 12th, 2008 at 9:23 pm
    Alex Bainbridge

    Yeah - if it wasn’t a compliment - I would have written “this is in such bad taste I wonder why the trade press haven’t picked up on it yet”

    Incidentally, I like your new mag….. !

  5. September 12th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
    Kevin May

    that’s very kind of you. read it all here:

    http://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2008/09/12/1708/Travolution+Journeys.html

    thanks. :-)

  6. September 12th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
    Alex Bainbridge

    HI Kevin
    I don’t need to read it as I have found I have written half of it!
    :)

  7. September 12th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
    Kevin May

    the link wasn’t meant for you, but your reader(s). :-)

    NB: Alex has written a half page article and is quoted twice(ish) in another article. hardly half of the almost 120 pages.

  8. September 13th, 2008 at 9:58 am
    Richard Hampton

    Can you for the life of me get the name of Australias national carrier correct, it’s QANTAS not Quantas, the original name was Queensland and Northern Territories Aerial Service.

    Thank you.

    R L Hampton

  9. September 13th, 2008 at 10:02 am
    Alex Bainbridge

    Hi Richard
    Thanks…… it was a cut & paste job from PaddyPower….. but I should have spotted it.
    Please also inform PaddyPower of your displeasure as well
    Cheers from the UK.
    Alex

  10. September 13th, 2008 at 10:21 am
    Lee Harrison ( Owner Select World Travel)

    Loving It, if the Olympic Medal Count doesn’t get the aussies riled, then mispelling the National airline is always a sure bet

  11. September 13th, 2008 at 10:41 am
    Richard Hampton

    All better now, thanks Alex.

    Re: Olympic medal count…..

    We were being nice to our new big brother China, the Aussie team held back being benevolent peeps that we are, but lovely Matthew Mitcham did us proud in more ways than one!
    Cheers Rick

  12. September 13th, 2008 at 10:42 am
    Alex Bainbridge

    Hey Lee,
    Tweaked your comments…. Incidentally - putting that big “in administration” post on the first page of your website….. makes it look like you are in administration rather than XL !
    Alex

  13. September 15th, 2008 at 3:59 am
    Tim

    Alex - we also love to call the Flying Kangaroo “the Red Rat” but that is another story.

    Very strange that the odds of Air France are better than QANTAS. QF have just announced another incredible set of results (deserved or otherwise). This is one of the most profitable airlines in the world. As a regular flyer I would love them to be in a bit of competitive trouble and therefore driven to improve their product but this airline is in the middle of a golden age of results.

  14. September 18th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
    Mathew Currie

    It was first posted on Paddy Power as “First airline to crash” - but they later changed it following complaints about the connotations of the word “crash” in the airline industry.

    Eek!

  15. September 18th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
    Alex Bainbridge

    …. and now PaddyPower have “closed” betting on airlines.

    Instead they now have a market for “next bank to crash”. Failing travel companies is yesterday’s news….. what is the digital equivalent to chip wrapping paper?

  16. September 27th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
    Big Travel Web

    Fascinating… I sense some shorting soon ….. but where’s iberia in that list? Alitalia looks a good bet!

  17. September 29th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
    Alex Bainbridge

    Paddy Power have reopened betting again

    Paddy Power airline odds

    This time excluding Alitalia.

    FlyGlobespan (6-4) and Spanair (6-1) don’t look too good

  18. October 7th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
    Alex Bainbridge

    Now flyGlobeSpan are threatening to sue Paddy Power because they were listed near the top of the odds

    “The Edinburgh-based company last night appeared to have won a victory over Irish bookmaker Paddy Power after the firm suspended bets on who will be the next victim of the world aviation crisis. Paddy Power said it had stopped taking bets because of lack of interest. ”

    From the Scotsman

Leave a Reply


Comments for this post will be closed on 7 October 2009.




This blog is about travel ecommerce with a focus on topics of interest to tour operators & travel companies

Alex has previously started up a small tour operator (5 staff) and also worked for leading "dot coms", airlines, hotel chains and tour operators advising and project managing web, ecommerce and reservation system projects.

Alex is available for travel ecommerce consulting via Travel UCD. Travel UCD also operates TourCMS - a web based reservation system for small tour operators


RSS Feed

Subscribe via daily email



AddThis Feed Button

Homepage
About this blog
Best of the blog (top 10 posts!)

Recent comments
Tamara: It’s a lot of money! But I guess it’s probably good value for the column inches it generates - of course as long as you get to the top five! To guarantee that it looks like you have to have...

Alex Bainbridge: Hi Tamara …. as for PhoCusWright….. I am sure that at the point the judges judged they were impartial - however it was a fairly self selecting group who put themselves forward to be judged...

Darren Cronian: Alex, I am worried that we are becoming on the same wave length. http://www.traveldotnet.co.uk/ articles/lets-not-forget-offli ne-travel-innovation/ No, I have just read this post now, I didn’t...

Pete Meyers: Alex - I’m really looking forward to hearing the pirate story, well done!

Ben Colclough: I must say I had more fun acting out a chicken in a restaurant in Yunnan, China than I would have had with the flip book. Seriously though - it is a good idea & innovative. Not sure I would want to...

Alex Bainbridge: Hi Pete The times I would have found this useful (PocketComms) I really wouldn’t have wanted to put an iphone into someone elses hands! For example negotiating with a people smuggling ship in...

Pete Meyers: I think the best innovation is a combination of great ideas and succinct execution. To your example about the PocketComms, it was a good idea that fermented for a number of years, yet who’s to say...

Tamara: This is an interesting debate. I wonder what the PhocusWright judges views are. They seemed to be very clear however that they wanted to reward companies who had actually created something - rather than simply...

Ben Colclough: P&G, generally regarded as a very innovative large consumer branded company has an approach to innovation that throws some light on this. They embrace failure as a necessary part of innovation. This...

Categories
Top commentators
Kevin May
Darren Cronian
Jeremy Head
John
Ben Colclough
Alex Bainbridge
graham steele
Ian McKee
Big Travel Web
Tamara
Guillaume
Ignacio
Neil MacLean
Dominic
John Pyle

Other travel & tourism blogs
Travolution
The Boot
Hotel Blogs
Travel Rants
TraveBlather
Travel PR Blog
Dot Tourism
Albert Barra [Spanish]

Wiwih blogs - a directory of travel industry blogs

Small Fish Big Ocean

Come and join my travel business social network! for small tour operators and niche agents


TourCMS