The only real thing i have against AMS is that it is still governmental owned and seems to partially stay that way. A government will always favour employment in their own country, hence rather have additional traffic coming to AMS then BRU. That is the main reason why i'm not in favour of AMS. Give me a completely privatised airport anyday!
Our government is doing a good thing with the privatisation of BRU. It would happen anyway, and i'm happy that it is finally happening. This battle for the takeover of BRU would have always happened, whenever it would have been privatised. But i do think that the government is also aware of the situation and the different competitors bidding for BRU. As also our government favours high employment in BRU, i'm sure that they will be very carefull at who they sell their shares (without their shares, a 50%+ stake isn't possible) so that future employment will be the least jeopardised. I really don't think that they will go for the quick money and just sell to the highest bidder.Thanks to the Belgian government for all this...
Bad idea, very bad idea. Many business people come to BRU and are willing to pay more for extra service (extra service that also creates jobs, with BRU as an LCC airport, skychefs would be quickly bancrupt). I sincerely hope that when BRU is privatised, they would make an offer to buy Charleroi and DEVELOP (not break it down) it into a big LCC hub. It has the right distance to Brussels (even closer then some "normal" main airports from other cities). That would spice up things a little bit, i guess:-)I hope whoever ends up buying BRU, will develop it as a LCC airport.
To conclude, based on all this, i'm not really in favour of AMS, more in favour for really privatised airports that have a good knowledge of things (CPH comes to mind, although i'm not sure if they are completely privatised, but i think so). Other investors are also good, like the australian group, but one has to wonder how much "airport-specific" knowledge they have... Do they have the correct skills and the necessary funds for the future investments? Or would BRU become just a stock in their portfolio?
Only future will tell, but with the correct investors, i still think that a nice future lies ahead for BRU! (don't forget that AA seems to be very interested in cooperation with SN in BRU, i even heard rumours (just rumours!) on A.net about possible more connections, e.g. Miami, ...
Greets,
Pieter