Bloodbath, or just a scratch? ​

Predictions of an impending “bloodbath” among European airlines have become as much a feature of winter as the first Christmas decorations appearing in the shops.

However, much like the “You won’t believe what happened next” lead into just about every BuzzFeed article, the over-hyped drama of the long-awaited bloodbath has lost its edge. Another year, another bloodbath. Meh.

Yes, the European airline landscape continues to evolve - you need look no further than Alitalia and Aer Lingus for evidence of ownership changes – but we are simply not seeing the kind of dramatic airline failures predicted by the industry’s fortune tellers.

The “bloodbath” fortune has also become increasingly vague. It was originally a warning of widespread big-ticket airline failures. Today it refers to a bit of a fare battle on individual routes.

That’s not a “bloodbath”; that’s competition.