At least 50 European airlines are at risk of going bust if conditions in the industry fail to improve, The Times reports.
Citing a report by Douglas McNeil of Blue Oar investments, the newspaper said that a short-list of the most vulnerable airlines has already been drawn up by the securities firm.
The development echoes last week’s prediction by BA chief executive Willie Walsh that the industry should brace itself for a number of bankruptcies due to rising fuel costs.
Commenting on the prevailing sense that several major carriers look set to go under, Walsh said a shake-up in the market would be a “positive thing” as it will “take capacity out of the market”.
“We will see a number of failures as there are quite a lot of weak carriers that will not survive,” he explained. “We are in the worst trading environment the industry has ever faced.”
The Blue Oar report singled out SAS (Scandinavia), Alitalia (Italy), Olympic (Greece), Malev (Hungary) and Lot (Poland) as the carrier’s least well placed to weather the current difficulties.
