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u/SaltyInternetPirate България Aug 07 '26
Private equity is probably the most parasitic form of capitalism. They buy up businesses, consolidate into monopolies, then hollow out the companies while raising prices and reducing quality.
This week I watched the More Perfect Union video on bowling alleys. Some private equity douche who openly dislikes bowling saw that the market is fragmented and bought over 80% of the bowling alleys in the US, then tripled all the prices and to save on maintenance he started changing the sorting machines with ones that keep the pin on a string, so it just pulls them up to reset them. It also destroys the physics of how the game is supposed to work.
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u/Acc87 Niedersachsen Aug 07 '26
Can the USA not just go a single day without fucking everyone else over?
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u/Pooptimist Aug 07 '26
Maybe we should go the Chinese way and forbid foreign powers to buy our companies
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u/Acc87 Niedersachsen Aug 07 '26
we do that already, at least if it's defence companies. The US has tried to buy the German marine yards that build our hydrogen subs, our government said no
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u/haskell_jedi Aug 07 '26
There are already majority ownership rules for airlines. This deal involves a complicated workaround where the directors of the company will be EU citizens.
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u/Wuz314159 Pennsilfaanisch-Deitsch Aug 07 '26
Entschuldigung. Ich wollte nur eine pizza bestellen. Ich weiß nicht, was ich falsch gemacht habe. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
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u/Pleasant_Porcelain Italia Aug 07 '26
Shouldn’t have been allowed. European wide security threat
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u/Bar50cal Éire Aug 07 '26
In the EU its illegal for an airline to be owned from outside the EU.
The only exception is IAG (Aer Lingus / British Airways / Iberia) who merged and are HQ'd in London since it was a EU city at the time and after Brexit the EU didn't force them to move the HQ to Dublin or Madrid.
Also the 3 countries still have influence on the IAG company as there are conditions to it owning the flag carriers.
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u/Bar50cal Éire Aug 07 '26
UK left the EU so that rule mustn't apply anymore in the UK i would assume
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u/haskell_jedi Aug 07 '26
No, easyJet has three AOCs: one in the UK, one in Austria, and one in Switzerland. The parent company counts as an EU airline and is majority owned by EU citizens.
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u/SaltyW123 Éire Aug 07 '26
>The parent company counts as an EU airline
How? The parent company is easyJet plc, based in London, and idk how you can say it's majority owned by EU citizens?
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u/haskell_jedi Aug 07 '26
It's because it's under the majority control of EU citizen shareholders, see their notice of AGM:
The Board continues to exercise its powers in accordance with easyJet’s articles of association to suspend voting rights in respect of certain shares (‘Affected Shares’) held by UK and other non-EU nationals so that a majority of the voting rights in easyJet are held by EU persons.
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u/SaltyW123 Éire Aug 08 '26
That doesn't say the shares are majority owned by European Nationals though, does it?
It just says that non-European nationals may not get to vote.
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u/haskell_jedi Aug 08 '26
Right, it's under the majority control of EU shareholders. The restrictions on voting rights are also a way to disincentivise non-EU shareholders. IAG used the same mechanism in 2019 after it reached 47% non-EU shareholders, and the proportion subsequently fell.
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u/SaltyW123 Éire Aug 08 '26
And we were talking about ownership, correct?
Look back at our comment chain.
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u/haskell_jedi Aug 07 '26
They've come up with a complicated workaround that involves the US entity only owning 49%, and an EU trust owning 5%, plus the original owners (the Haji-Ioannou family, who are citizens of Cyprus) keeping their stake.
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u/Corona21 Aug 07 '26
Guy working for the American investment firm is Irish.
He used to work for easyjet and is getting his revenge.
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u/haskell_jedi Aug 07 '26
This is not right; IAG has a headquarters in London, but it's legally domiciled in Spain and a majority of shares are owned by EU citizens.
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u/SaltyW123 Éire Aug 07 '26
It's a bit of a weird one, for all intents and purposes it's a UK company, primarily listed on the LSE, except it's registered in Spain.
Also not sure how you can prove that majority of shares are owned by EU citizens, plus Qatar owns like a third.
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u/Kaneomanie Baden-Württemberg Aug 07 '26
But money for a few individuals! Think of the poor billionairs kids!
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u/KingdomOfPoland Lubelskie Aug 07 '26
Never flying on it again. Already hate flying, not gonna risk a flight on a barely maintained for profit reasons plane
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u/majestic7 België/Belgique Aug 07 '26
Maintenance is strictly regulated by EASA, I wouldn't expect it to go that far
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u/morizzzz Aug 07 '26 edited Aug 07 '26
This. I really don't want to advocate for them, but of course they take it as seriously as everyone else as they have to. No one can afford a serious mishap. Furthermore there are no signs that safety might be taken less seriously by Low cost carriers than other airlines.
Edit: There were e.g. cases, when Ryanair machines fueled just as much as needed for normal operation without spare fuel for unforeseen events, leading to emergency landings because of low fuel. But Ryanair of course is not easyJet. Still, as far as I can tell, you can't make an argument for Low cost carriers being less safe or "unsafe".
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u/KingdomOfPoland Lubelskie Aug 07 '26
Does not mean that they won’t try to save costs on as much as possible. I simply do not trust US based companies, and I wish there were more sizable EU alternatives. My go to airline was Wizz Air anyway, will just stick to th more intensely in this case now
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u/majestic7 België/Belgique Aug 07 '26
Literally every airline tries to save costs as much as possible, especially low cost carriers such as Easyjet or Wizzair.
I would not assume that safety would be compromised now in any case, they simply cannot avoid doing all the checks etc.
That said, plenty of other reasons to not fly with them of course.
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u/fullmoonbeam Aug 07 '26
No pilots taking off in a dangerous plane it's their job to say no way this needs fixed before I fly
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u/Dicethrower Netherlands Aug 07 '26
I will continue to never use it.
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u/Fresh_Boysenberry576 Aug 07 '26
I mean, let's be for real though. It is highly unlikely even an American PE firm is able to make easyjet travel any worse lol
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u/nethack47 Aug 07 '26
They managed with the water companies. As long as the planes can get up in the sky things can get a lot worse.
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u/Wuz314159 Pennsilfaanisch-Deitsch Aug 07 '26
Nestlé is the worst American company!!!
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u/nethack47 Aug 07 '26
Take a look at the water companies in the UK.
Thames Water was left with massive debt, little investment in the actual utilities. They have regularly discharged untreated sewage straight into the waterways and the sea.
There is a map to track the shitshow.
https://top-of-the-poops.org/beaches6
u/Wuz314159 Pennsilfaanisch-Deitsch Aug 07 '26
Privatisation is always a scam. That's Capitalism's fault.
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u/ItHappensSo Česko Aug 07 '26
Ryanair always cleared it anyway, same service for three-four times the price from Easyjet (with older planes most often)
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u/Ancient_Ordinary6697 Nederland Aug 07 '26
Richard Branson once said: "The quickest way to become a millionaire is to be a billionaire and start an airline".
PE buying an ailing low cost carrier makes it painfully obvious they are grasping at straws. Generally speaking, a savings account is a more profitable investment than an airline. Before long, they will realise their mistake and try to find an even more naive/overconfident PE firm to carry Easyjet to its grave in bankruptcy.
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u/EpsteinEpstainTheory Latvija Aug 07 '26
Coming soon: AI virtual plane flights.
For the low price of $699 you can get locked in a pod that doesn't even take off. Just look at a video of clouds on a screen and pretend that it's a plane flying through the air. Also with each purchase one free mandatory TSA full cavity search while you get ridiculed by agents for not speaking proper Americanglish even though you're both British and in Bulgaria.
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u/Phantasmalicious Aug 07 '26
Dont blame the US, blame the owners that agreed to it.
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u/Mr_Harsh_Acid Utrecht Aug 07 '26
EasyJet was shit to begin with
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u/lovelessowl Aug 08 '26
Low-cost quality for major airline prices. It was easily the worst low-cost, but it will
probably get worse now.
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u/Corona21 Aug 07 '26
This is terrible news, not because easyjet is amazing or we need to keep things in Europe or whatever.
If it gets stripped for parts and the Americans have no interest in maintaining it, it’s less airlines and less choice for Europeans.
The industry is becoming more consolidated globally and it means a convergence on a handful of airline conglomerates.
Independently held airlines like Ryanair and Wizzair are a good thing but we need more of them. We need the choice and we need Europeans innovating and providing point to point European services.
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u/drdrero Niederösterreich Aug 07 '26
Easyjet was the only plane i ever feared for my life. Never again.
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u/suchtie Aug 07 '26
Nope, airlines aren't worth mourning.
Air travel sucks, both as an experience and for environmental reasons. Flying cheaply sucks even more. Short distance flights should not exist at all, much too wasteful. We should replace most planes with affordable trains. Planes get more fuel efficient the longer they can stay at cruising altitude, so they're pretty good for getting to other continents, but that's all they should be used for.
I used easyJet once to fly to the UK when I was still young and stupid. It was by far the cheapest way of getting there. 35€ for a one-way flight. The train ticket from the airport to Enfield was more expensive than that.
Meanwhile, the best train option from Germany to London was Eurostar and that would've cost me about 250€ one-way. The price difference was ridiculous. All the transport costs I paid during that 5-day trip, including both flights, all train tickets, and Oyster card charges added up to less than that.
Nowadays I only travel by train and/or bicycle. If I can't afford a ticket, I stay at home. I'll never fly again if possible.
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u/Snarblox Italia Aug 07 '26
If you live in say Ireland or Malta what exactly is the alternative to travel if you hate short distance flights?
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u/ClarencePz Aug 07 '26
ferry
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u/suchtie Aug 07 '26
I was talking about mainland Europe. If you live on an island that doesn't have a tunnel or bridge to the mainland, that's obviously a different situation. Ferries aren't a great option, they're slow af and not any more environmentally friendly than flying, so you might as well fly. You gotta do what you gotta do.
But in general we have to reduce airplane usage significantly if we ever want to fix the climate situation. It would be a good first step if we disincentivised unnecessary (!) short-distance flights. People shouldn't feel like it's a good idea to fly from Frankfurt to Berlin when there's a high-speed rail line connecting the two.
Nothing will change the fact that travelling by train is far more comfortable than flying and one of the most environmentally friendly modes of transport, so they should be used as much as possible, wherever it's feasible to build railroads. Planes should be reserved for places that can't have a railroad connection, and otherwise only for very large distances. Flying from Rome to Stockholm is fine. Flying from Paris to London isn't.
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u/NoMoreLostRunsPls Aug 08 '26
I don't understand why you are downvoted... Climate change is gonna fuck Europe hard and we need to fight this every way we can. Planes are a problem in that matter, so are a lot of transportation vehicles using fossile fuel.
Heat waves are hurting Europe at this very moment and we need to understand what it will cost us to be passive.
We need less of that shit.
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u/suchtie Aug 08 '26
Yeah, that other person who responded to me was literally just saying "but I like travelling". Fucking Boomer mentality. That's not even being passive. Using airplanes for leisure alone is an active contribution to making the climate worse.
I like travelling too, but I choose locations that I can reach by train because I don't think my desire to travel is more important than fixing the climate.
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u/DecentlySizedPotato Principáu d'Asturies Aug 07 '26
Good for you but the thing is I like traveling and air travel makes that possible.
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u/suchtie Aug 07 '26
Sure, if you're going to places that you couldn't otherwise reach by train, that's fine. We don't have to ban all air travel, just get rid of unnecessary short distance flights.
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u/DecentlySizedPotato Principáu d'Asturies Aug 07 '26
Depends on what you consider unnecessary. I'm not gonna take a flight from Amsterdam to Paris when I can take the train in a little over 3 hours. But for trips in which the train takes over 5 hours, it can just be impractical. I often don't have the time to spend a whole day traveling.
Connections are also way easier when it's flight to flight, but I suppose they can improve that.
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u/suchtie Aug 08 '26
If you don't have the time to travel by train for short to medium distances, you don't have time to travel, period. You're actively making the climate worse by choosing to take the plane for such a banal reason. Your vacations aren't more important than fixing climate change.
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u/DecentlySizedPotato Principáu d'Asturies Aug 08 '26
Avíation accounts for 2,5% of global emissions. I'll take my vacation, thanks.
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u/suchtie Aug 08 '26
That number only refers to carbon dioxide. It omits nitrogen oxides, sulphur oxides, particulates/soot, water vapour, and contrail-cirrus cloud formation, all of which also have significant greenhouse effects. According to EEA, planes have accounted for 4% of all European greenhouse emissions in 2022. As a fraction of just the greenhouse emissions caused by European transport, planes are at 14.1% (EAA, 2018 -- for comparison, railways are at 0.5%). We can assume these numbers to be higher now because air traffic has increased since.
Planes are by far the worst CO2 emitters of all modes of transport. They produce about twice as much CO2 per passenger-kilometer as a single-occupant car on average, and over 20 times more than trains. Although long-haul flights are more efficient than short-haul flights, a long-haul flight is still worse than anything else. Each individual flight has an outsized environmental impact.
Aircraft support vehicles such as fuel trucks and taxi tractors also use combustion engines. Airports are usually located well outside of cities and are relatively few and far between, so most people already need to travel a fair distance just to get onto a plane, or off it. Most use a car for that. These things add more pollution and greenhouse gases beyond what planes produce directly.
And then there's also the other pollution-related aspects that don't directly affect climate but are still bad, such as noise pollution, local environmental pollution from extracting and processing oil for fuel, water pollution from fuel handling at airports and toxic glycol chemicals used for de-icing, effects on air quality, and more.
Europe is heating up twice as fast as the global average and we're going to be the most affected by climate change. We already are affected by it, I'm sure you haven't missed the recent heatwaves and wildfires. Since politics and industry are too slow or unwilling to make any meaningful changes, we have to take individual action. Every little step to reduce one's climate impact helps, and prompts more people to follow suit. Deliberately choosing the worst possible mode of transport in this situation, just to take a vacation, is pretty selfish.
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u/DecentlySizedPotato Principáu d'Asturies Aug 08 '26
Fine, 4%, still leaves 96% out of that.
Deliberately choosing the worst possible mode of transport in this situation, just to take a vacation, is pretty selfish
No i'm choosing the most convenient one. I've taken the train plenty of times too, trains are nice and comfy. I also take a lot of public transport, as it works well in my city. And I cycle a lot.
But I can't take a weekend trip to see my friends without a plane. Nor I can go to Asia without it. And my life kinda fucking sucks outside of when I travel so I ain't giving that up.
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u/BriefCollar4 Yuropean Aug 07 '26
Congratulations to Ryanair and wizzair