Financial crisis could speed up shakeout among European airlines

Banks are collapsing and economic storm clouds are gathering, but the cabaret is in full swing and the joint is really jumping. The Great Depression? No, a lavish 75th birthday bash that was thrown by Air France-KLM in Paris this week. The airline, the largest in Europe and the world's biggest by revenue following its merger with KLM four years ago, put on a stylish and self-confident 1930s spectacle Tuesday befitting one of the few certain survivors of a shakeout in European airlines. Dotted with politicians and air hostesses in vintage uniforms, the party at the vast glass-domed Grand Palais exhibition hall would have cost a fortune had Air France-KLM not persuaded its suppliers to cover the bulk of its cost. But there could have been no clearer contrast to the global financial crisis after a week in which it was safer for... [read full story]