#we are beating the match fixing allegations but at what cost

[sscarletvenus]

if we lose let's just shut down ahemdabad as a cricket venue permanently

[politelymenacing]

Finished my Series 3 rewatch in time for tonight's ep. Here are my rewarch thoughts that noone asked for.

Series 1 rewatch | Series 2 rewatch

Ted's description of rugby, mighty interesting. Never beating those bi allegations, my friend.

Jan Maas is Certified Statistics Guy (like in La Locker Room Aux Folles)

Oh interesting! Roy's choice of 4-4-2 explained is completely opposite to total football.

I am almost certain you cannot drive your car over that bridge towards the London Stadium, Nate.

I still can't get over Dani's face when he finds out someone writes Paddington's tweets for him.

"Ain't much more scary out there than a creepy clown, right?" Cut to Rupert. 👏

Colin doing down a manhole? Asdfghjkl

We know what Field of Dreams is the UK, man. 🤦🏼‍♀️

Ms Kakes looks like she is dressed as Princess Leia...?? Does this mean she will be part of Rupert's downfall??

OK, but what if the whole thing of Trent writing a book isn't news to Ted and he is just winding Trent up by pretending to think about it. Like they are actually friends now or Trent already texted him about asking Rebecca and this thing is an act.

Can we get an episode of Single Guys Club à la Beard After Hours?

Completely contradicting what I said above, but Ted reading a football book right after he finds out Trent is going to be hanging around... this is the guy who asked him if he could explain the offside rule and asked if he was a fucking joke.

The time on Keeley's phone is 11:09, but they just had wishing time which is 11:11! Continuity!!

Fuck off, Trent Crimm. 😂😂😂

Dani still smiles are Trent when the team are ignoring him. He is a precious pure soul and should be protected at all costs.

People bought Roy white orchids! In Series 2, he questioned how Jamie Carragher knew he like white orchids when he joined Sky Sports. Great little call back.

Again, Keeley's phone says that it's 14:00, but the TV says it's 13:32 straight after. Come on, guys!

Also they say that this game is the start of the season and later Rebecca congratulates Rupert on West Ham winning yesterday.

There's just no way that Roy doesn't know what Hallmark Christmas films are. They're on everywhere here (in July as well as December!) and he's definitely watched at least one with the yoga ladies.

Underrated joke:

Trent's little shake of the head when the rest of the Diamond Dogs agree Julie Andrews is worth fancying... 😂

What's that? Me getting emotional over Trent's reaction to being included and validated by Ted, Beard, and Roy?

The Norm Macdonald name check was a nice nod, but I promise you, the average person in the UK would have no idea who he was.

How did I not notice that when Zava shakes hands with Keeley he kisses his own hand?

What is the choice behind this reaction, Jason??

WILL

Ted popping out from behind Zava is still hilarious.

Gahhhhhh they fucked up the graphics of the table. After the Brentford match it should be played 7 and the points should be 19. (Maybe they have fixed this on Apple since?)

How pissed off is Isaac going to be when he finds out he has already met Colin's bf?

Rebecca's red dress. Oh boy.

Jamie's bit with the make-up artist for the Bantr advert is so cute.

MAY A YOUNG ROBERT RETFORD PORTRAY YOU IN A FILM SOMEDAY.

Oh Nate making a stupid joke that Ted would love and Rupert not getting it (or specifically pretending not to) 😭😭😭

What season is this supposed to be?? The timestamp on the CCTV of Nate said it was 2021 so that would have been the 20/21 season making this the 21/22 season, but Ted's text messages are dated throughout 2022. The latest being to Henry on 28th October 2022.

Beat them. LOL

Nice call back to series 1 of Nate spitting out the martini.

More quotes that make me nervous:

Stop letting the British characters say 'elevator' i beg of you.

I find it so unbearably uncomfortable that boat guy kisses Rebecca's foot. She should have kicked him in the face.

Isaac leopard print socks!

I can't believe they are tumbledrying Rebecca's fancy clothes.

Oh shit. The basketball game Ted remembers watching with his dad was June 1991. That's only 3 months before his dad killed himself. 😩

They were mad for this triangle hallucination business. Honestly.

When Jamie and Roy arrive back at the coach, the subtitles have Jamie saying "You lovely people", but it sounds so much like "you lucky people" and with the voice he does makes me question if it's a nod to a bicycle riding character in Spaced who says the same thing. Phil Dunster posted a video of the "inspiration" behind the bike scenes which was a clip with Simon Pegg who co-wrote the show, so maybe? VERY obscure if it is!

Still angry about Jack defacing the first edition of Sense and Sensibility.

Please learn how to say croissant.

Papa Obisanya looks like he gives such good hugs.

I love how subtly Will sticks his finger up at Jamie.

Another classic Will reaction:

The Good Dads Club:

I fucking love that Colin wore a hi-vis jacket to help clear up Sam's restaurant. Truly committing to the chameleon bit.

I will NEVER be over this:

Thought I would be ok watching this by now, but Billy's face just kills me.

Henry being so excited to see Nate 💔

BEARD AND HENRY 😭😭😭😭

I love Keeley and Rebecca's little head movements when Ted is singing his little heart-bent song. There are so many little moments where characters are in sync with each other's movement this series. Someone should make a gifset.

Ha! I missed this line last time. Drag him, Jade.

Still think Rebecca and Marcus would be cute together.

How can this show end without Sam playing for Nigeria??? IT'S SO FUCKING SAD.

God, Hannah looks so beautiful in blue.

So. Fucking. Fond. Look at his face when Ted is pretending that he didn't realised "The Devil" was Rupert...

Elodie is such a fab little actor. Her face when she works out what the name on Roy's shirt spells is fantastic.

HOW CAN ANYONE CALL SAM UGLY. HE IS SO BEAUTIFUL, PLEASE.

Sam Richardson is so great. I wish I didn't have to hate Akufo so much.

Another episode, another great reaction shot from everyone with MVP Will.

The bit before little Rebecca appears...was anyone else worried that he catching her breath was gonna be some cliché feeling faint because she was pregnant? Still a bit concerned tbh.

asdfghjkl Akufo is wearing a purple suit. Like Willy Wonka!

Oof. The Nathan stuff isn't any easier for me the second time round.

Concerned.

And these have been my thoughts.

[thewebofslime]

The FBI is investigating a secret society of tattooed deputies in East Los Angeles as well as similar gang-like groups elsewhere within the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, multiple people familiar with the inquiry said. The federal probe follows allegations of beatings and harassment by members of the Banditos, a group of deputies assigned to the Sheriff’s East L.A. station who brand themselves with matching tattoos of a skeleton outfitted in a sombrero, bandolier and pistol. The clique’s members are accused by other deputies of using gang-like tactics to recruit young Latino deputies into their fold and retaliating against those who rebuff them. In interviews with several deputies, FBI agents have asked about the inner workings of the Banditos and the group’s hierarchy, according to three people with close knowledge of the matter who spoke to The Times on the condition their names not be used because the investigation is ongoing. In particular, the sources said, agents have been trying to determine whether leaders of the Banditos require or encourage aspiring members to commit criminal acts, such as planting evidence or writing false incident reports, to secure membership in the group. The agents also have inquired about other groups known to exist in the department, which has nearly 10,000 deputies and polices large swaths of the sprawling county. They have asked for information about the tattoos and practices of the Spartans and Regulators in the department’s Century Station, and the Reapers, who operate out of a station in South Los Angeles, according to the sources. Sheriff Alex Villanueva said he could not comment when asked about the FBI probe Wednesday. An FBI spokeswoman also declined to provide any information. TIMES INVESTIGATION: Inside deputy cliques and why the Sheriff’s Department has failed to stop them The inquiry marks the return of federal law enforcement authorities tasked with digging around in the Sheriff’s Department, which has been beset by episodes of corruption and mismanagement in the past several years. In 2011, the FBI secretly opened an investigation into reports of inmate abuse by deputies working in the county jails. The sweeping probe involving an inmate who served as an undercover informant upended the insular department, sending several deputies to prison for beatings and cover-ups. Former Sheriff Lee Baca, his second-in-command and other senior staff were convicted of conspiring to obstruct the FBI. The current investigation appears to have been spurred by a group of deputies who in March filed a legal claim against the county accusing sheriff’s officials of failing to address a hostile work environment in the East L.A. station. The deputies say Bandito leaders, who are alleged to control key elements of station operations, put others’ lives at risk by not sending backup to help on dangerous calls, enforced illegal arrest quotas and carried out other forms of harassment. The claim, a precursor to a lawsuit, focuses on what deputies say was an unprovoked attack by members of the Banditos during an off-duty party in the early morning hours of Sept. 28 at Kennedy Hall, an event space near the station. The altercation started when four Banditos began harassing a rookie, according to the claim. Two other deputies said they intervened; one was struck repeatedly in the face, while the other was punched and kicked multiple times before being choked and losing consciousness, the claim says. RELATED: Sheriff secret societies cost taxpayers millions The lawmen accused in the claim — Deputies David Silverio, Gregory Rodriguez and Rafael Munoz, and Sgt. Mike Hernandez — were placed on paid administrative leave after the incident. The Sheriff’s Department presented a criminal case involving the four men to the district attorney’s office on June 19. Greg Risling, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office, said Wednesday that charges have not been filed and the case remains under review. He declined to comment when asked whether federal officials have asked his office to hold off on the prosecution. Villanueva has repeatedly downplayed the significance of tattooed deputy groups in his ranks, calling them a “cultural norm” and a source of intergenerational hazing between lawmen. He said there is nothing wrong with the clubs as long as they don’t promote unlawful behavior. Still, he acknowledged the pervasive influence of the Banditos at the East L.A. Station, saying they “ran roughshod” over the previous captain and dictated where deputies would be assigned, enabled by the weak leadership of past administrations. He said that his first act upon taking office Dec. 3 was to bring in a new captain, Ernie Chavez, to quell the Banditos situation. “Chavez identified the problem and the problem players, and he’s been doing a commendable job of sifting through them to get the station up and running to serve the community,” Villanueva said. Last month, Villanueva announced a new policy that specifically bars department members from participating in any groups that promote conduct that violates the rights of other employees or the public. The policy says that such groups often organize under a symbol or tattoo and increase the risk of civil liability to the agency. He said the 1st Amendment prevents him from barring deputies from getting tattooed, but he said having matching ink is a “dumb idea” because of potential lawsuits in “today’s litigious society.” He advises those with the coordinated tattoos to get them removed, if they can. The sheriff claims he transferred from the station 36 people who were associated with the Banditos or were otherwise identified as problematic. But Chavez, in an interview Wednesday, said that the 36 transfers simply reflect the general group of deputies who left the station since January, and that all of the departures were voluntary, some because of promotions. He said he did not know how many people allegedly tied to the Banditos were transferred. Villanueva said he thinks there is no longer a hostile work environment at the East L.A. Station. “Now that it’s been broken up and scattered, I’d say yeah, it’s over,” he said. Vincent Miller, an attorney for the deputies who filed the claim about the Banditos, said any changes at the station have been cosmetic and have failed to abolish the toxic work environment there. He said that the department has not held the problematic deputies accountable and that some of his clients have suffered ongoing emotional stress because of the situation, prompting him to file additional grievances in the case. “The captain and everyone else at East L.A. Station knows they haven’t transferred 36 deputies, and the real number is just six,” Miller said. “We specifically filed the supplemental claims very recently because the cop gang problem has not been fixed.” While reports about cliques of law enforcement officers occasionally surface across the country, no agency has received more public scrutiny for them than the Sheriff’s Department in Los Angeles County. The secretive groups have been entrenched in the department for decades. Defenders say the cliques are harmless fraternities, likening them to close-knit groups in the military. But time and again, the deputy clubs have come under fire for promoting aggressive tactics and an us-versus-everyone mentality. A watchdog panel in 1992 pressed the Sheriff’s Department to address the problem. Two decades later, a blue-ribbon commission sharply criticized the department for turning a blind eye and allowing the groups to use excessive force against people in the county jails and on the streets. The Times reported last year that a new tattooed club of lawmen surfaced at the Compton Station after a deputy there admitted under oath to having ink of a skeleton holding a rifle. The deputy — who was accused of excessive force in the fatal shooting of an unarmed man — said as many as 20 of his colleagues have the same tattoo. The county recently reached a $7-million settlement in a lawsuit after attorneys for the slain man’s family said the shooting was driven by the hard-charging policing of inked deputies. In a separate case last year, a Palmdale Station deputy admitted in a deposition to having a tattoo of a skull in a cowboy hat that matched the ink of several other lawmen at his station. More recently, internal documents showed that Deputy Caren Carl Mandoyan — who was fired for domestic violence and dishonesty and later was rehired by Villanueva — acknowledged having a tattoo as a member of the Reapers. Villanueva said Wednesday he does not believe there are problems with deputy groups at any other stations. The alleged attack by Banditos on fellow deputies echoed a 2010 incident in which a clique of deputies from a high-security floor in Men’s Central Jail brawled with other deputies at a Christmas party. Sheriff's officials accused the group of using gang-like hand signs and said jailers tried to “earn their ink” by breaking inmates’ bones. The recent allegations are not the first against the Banditos. In 2014, the county paid a female deputy assigned to the East L.A. Station $1.5 million to settle a lawsuit in which she claimed she had been physically and mentally harassed by some of the clique’s 80 members after refusing to go along with their “traditions and initiation rituals.” At the time, then-interim Sheriff John Scott announced that he would share the results of an investigation into claims of bullying by the Banditos. The probe, however, has remained confidential.

[star674gaming-blog]

Fortnite v-buck generator Fixations To Know Prior to deciding to Buy

What's Fortnite, Battle Royale, And The place Does one Obtain It Epic Games has taken legal motion in opposition to two prolific Fortnite Struggle Royale cheaters. The opportunity to build in Fortnite Battle Royale is an additional element PUBG lacks, and it may possibly come in useful, Primarily toward the business enterprise conclude of a match. Nonetheless, it really is value mentioning that Fortnite: Battle Royale has some noteworthy discrepancies from Playerunknown's Battlegrounds that very likely aided it outpace the original sport's early numbers. Fortnite Struggle Royale will be the totally free a hundred-player PvP manner in Fortnite. Fortnite Fight Royale is currently available on Personal computer, PS4, and Xbox Just one, providing up some cost-free-to-Enjoy motion that's similar to that observed in PUBG. It appears that cross-platform play is coming to Fortnite in some unspecified time in the future in the future, presumably in both its base and Battle Royale modes, nevertheless it hasn't been enabled nonetheless. Even regular deathmatch and group deathmatch modes can be produced additional exciting by incorporating gamers' customized creations, which has us wanting to see what Epic is preparing for Fortnite's launch. The Main Fortnite recreation takes advantage of a personality course method that offers some player bonuses to creating together with other bonuses to beat, but none of Those people have in excess of into Fight Royale. To access the manner on consoles, gamers will need only to pop onto the Xbox A single Retailer or PlayStation Retail outlet and download the standalone Fortnite Struggle Royale DLC. In fact, a short while ago Epic Games made the force into your Struggle Royale genre with their pretty possess free of charge-to-Perform Battle Royale recreation, which happens to be established inside the universe they developed with Fortnite. Like your property Base, The Fort exists outside of Fortnite's other modes, providing players their own personal private Room to develop a permanent composition. Epic has decided to go ahead and take people to court docket, in lieu of just ban them, right after selecting that the modification of the game's code is versus Fortnite's Close Consumer License Settlement and the http://www.bbc.co.uk/search?q=gaming Copyright Act. Actually while, we could see Fortnite becoming a activity that we might bad many hundreds of hrs in because of fluid gameplay, a good co-op aspect and many to carry out in recreation. Confident appears like Orcs Must Die in here, but Fortnite's cooperative navigate-and-fortify gameplay does feel various, I swear. Fortnite: Struggle Royale and Help save the entire world can be obtained now on Xbox One particular, PlayStation four, and PC. They tend to be concentrated in created-up regions ( click on to jump to our portion on Fortnite Fight Royale destinations ), but they don't seem to be the sole sites they can be found. Fortnite Launch Date, Price, Platforms, Battle Royale, Updates & Extra When Epic Games introduced that its fort-building survival title Fortnite was receiving an all-new Struggle Royale method, comparisons to Bluehole's PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) ended up right away designed. On moving into the vast and strategic world of Fortnite's ‘Fight Royale', you're main objective will be to be the final person (or crew) standing inside a heated a hundred player match. It's been quite a while since video games crashed on Xbox (no less than for me) but like clock operate, just about every several hrs Fortnite crashed to the house display on my Xbox. Epic has big http://navetic.com strategies to increase Fortnite Battle Royale in the future, nevertheless, as you could examine in this excerpt grabbed from the most recent Formal site article In the meantime, It will likely be fascinating to view whether or not Bluehole retracts their rather ridiculous promises or doubles down from Fortnite Fight Royale and Epic Game titles. So you have a option: wait around until eventually 2018 for release, buy a pack (which we come to following) or just play Fortnite Battle Royale as an alternative. So As you're watching for the sport to download, you will need to read through up on particularly how Fortnite Battle Royale sets alone apart, and Whatever you can assume with your initial day out. If you discover it as beneficial as we did, be sure you provide the video clip a thumbs up, and consider subscribing for the channel in addition For additional Fortnite Fight Royale updates. FORTNITE followers can now gain from a fix Epic Games have put out after 1000s of players claimed the hit PS4, Xbox A person and Computer game as down. Because it's Fortnite, occasionally they Establish factors too. The exact same is usually reported for Fortnite Battle Royale. This is often just a place to begin, and my hunch would be that the building mechanics that make the initial Fortnite so exceptional and fascinating will proceed to develop here. Very last month Epic Game titles submitted civil problems versus two alleged Fortnite cheaters The pair were accused of remaining associated with the cheat company Addicted Cheats, allegedly performing as assistance personnel for the positioning and working with aimbot computer software "With all the deliberate intention of ruining the sport for other players and gamers who check out streamers". The Fortnite Fight Royale mode formally launched on Personal computer, PlayStation four and Xbox A person and is completely absolutely free to Engage in, while the PvE component of Fortnite remains in paid early access till early 2018. Fortnite's Fight Royale manner continues to grow into its have video game generally, as Epic launches patch one.eleven and heads into Year two and the new winter function. You will find a foundation management element in Fortnite, which entails plenty of organizing (human) sources as well as sending out heroes to expeditions to assemble materials and loot. In Fortnite Fight Royale, the plentiful number of weapons makes certain that whilst stealth remains a factor in the sport, it's also completely probable to make it to the top of your spherical by managing and gunning.

[everettwilkinson]

POLITICO Playbook: ‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’ in Alabama

HERE YOU GO, JARED — BREAKING, at 4:17 a.m.: “ISTANBUL (AP) – Palestinian President Abbas says Palestinians won’t accept any role for U.S. in Mideast peace process ‘from now on.’” http://bit.ly/2Bl3lUY

BANNER HEADLINE in the Montgomery Advertiser: “SEN. JONES (D) … Alabama votes Democrat in for historic change” http://bit.ly/2AhkEm1

Story Continued Below

Good Wednesday morning. GABE DEBENEDETTI and ALEX ISENSTADT in Birmingham, Alabama: “A Democrat has been elected to the Senate from Alabama for the first time in a quarter-century, and the political earthquake has just begun.” http://politi.co/2Ajs4p5

The White House is waking up to this reality: Palestinians say they won’t deal with the U.S. in Middle East peace process. The president endorsed the losing candidate twice in the Alabama race: Luther Strange lost the primary, and Roy Moore lost the special election. And he now faces a razor-thin majority in a U.S. Senate where he’s all but alienated a handful of the members of his own party. It looks like he’ll get tax reform done. But 2018 is looking really difficult for the president.

WHAT DOUG JONES’ VICTORY MEANS …

— THE FLIMSY MAJORITY: Governing in Washington has now become a coin flip. Republicans’ 51-49 majority isn’t much of a majority at all. This doesn’t have much of an impact at the moment, because Luther Strange will remain in the Senate until the end of the year, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters yesterday.

Tax reform is likely safe, as the Senate plans a Monday vote, and the House a Tuesday vote. But anything else the president wants to do legislatively is going to face stiff headwinds. Trump can lose only one vote on anything. And he’s beat up on key Republicans like Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), so his margin for error is completely nonexistent. Any single Republican senator will have leverage to exact concessions from the leadership given the razor-thin majority. McConnell will have to guide the White House more than ever. PROBABLY DEAD ON ARRIVAL: Any sort of overhaul of entitlements. A LOT HARDER: Repealing Obamacare. A BETTER BET? Infrastructure.

— HOUSE REPUBLICANS FURTHER SQUEEZED. Speaker Paul Ryan’s majority is already perpetually frustrated by a Senate that can’t — or won’t — move its bills. Hey guys, it’s only going to get worse for you now.

— TESTS ABOUND: Can the president figure out how to navigate this new political reality? Will CHUCK SCHUMER be able to keep Doug Jones in the fold? He’s been sneakily successful at keeping Democrats unified on legislative items like health care and tax reform. Now he has a senator who just might periodically find it in his interest to side with Republicans. KEEP YOUR EYES ON IMMIGRATION. A tighter majority could give Democrats more leverage — if they are unified. Nancy Pelosi and Schumer have staked out a fix for DACA as “must-do.” And now they’ll have an extra Democratic vote in 2018.

— FRESH QUESTIONS ABOUT STEVE BANNON. Get used to hearing this: candidates matter. That’s what Mitch McConnell’s world will be saying plenty over the next few days. Steven Law, the head of the McConnell backed Senate Leadership Fund, said: “This is a brutal reminder that candidate quality matters regardless of where you are running. Not only did Steve Bannon cost us a critical Senate seat in one of the most Republican states in the country, but he also dragged the president of the United States into his fiasco.”

REMEMBER: Bannon world was trying to tell reporters that if he had campaigned for Ed Gillespie in Virginia, he could’ve won. Gillespie lost by nine points. Bannon was essentially all in for Moore — he campaigned for him late in the race — and Jones nearly cracked the 50 percent mark.

— THE MIDTERMS: DEMOCRATS were already energized after the Virginia and New Jersey elections. Watch for the party to seize on this victory to pull in a pile of campaign cash for the midterm elections and re-up with top tier candidate recruits. REPUBLICANS are increasingly nervous about their prospects next year with President Trump as the leader of their party, and with little to show voters. House Republicans have been telling us for weeks that they feel a potential wave as they stare 2018 in the eye.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY, from Josh Holmes in Mike DeBonis’s story in the Post: “If I had the top five Republican minds in politics and we spent three months attempting to conceive of a way to lose an Alabama Senate race, I’m not sure that we could come up with it. You could literally take any name out of a phone book except Roy Moore’s and win by double digits. And we managed to get the only guy in Alabama that could lose to a Democrat.” http://wapo.st/2z7DH4b

NYT’S JONATHAN MARTIN and ALEX BURNS note a “suburban shellacking” in Alabama. “In Jefferson County, which includes Birmingham and some of the state’s wealthiest enclaves, Mr. Jones, the Democratic candidate, captured more than 68 percent of the vote. And in Madison County, home to Huntsville and a large NASA facility, Mr. Jones won 57 percent of the vote.” http://nyti.ms/2z80tsC

WAPO’S BOB COSTA: “Democrats are jubilant — and newly confident about 2018 — as Alabama delivers win on Trump’s turf” http://wapo.st/2z6CcU3

A RECOUNT might not be allowed, per Rick Hasen. http://bit.ly/2nYBynM

THE COLLECTIVE ‘PHEW’ MOMENT: Senate Republicans were scheduled to meet today to discuss whether they would allow Roy Moore in the conference. They don’t have to do that anymore.

— WHAT TO LEARN FROM THIS: “5 takeaways from Alabama’s startling special election,” by Gabe Debendetti and Alex Isenstadt: “Here are POLITICO’s five takeaways after Alabama’s wild, ugly, controversial, and historically unparalleled Senate race: Bannon’s bruising. Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon went all-in for Moore – and then some. … What black voter problem? All the chatter across Alabama for the final week of the race focused on Democrats’ alleged problems turning out black voters. But after a blockbuster turnout operation designed by Jones’ campaign and national Democrats, African-American voters turned out in massive numbers for the former U.S. attorney. … Trump loses capital. The president put his political capital on the line – and lost. …

“Revenge of the soccer mom. The other primary reason for Jones’ win was strong antipathy toward Moore among white, suburban, college-educated conservatives. … Democrats to Trump: Watch out. … Alabama’s historic turnout on Tuesday mirrored enormous numbers for Democratic voters in both Virginia’s and New Jersey’s gubernatorial races even after muddy campaigns in all three states – and party operatives are now lunging to capitalize on that energy ahead of the 2018 midterms.” http://politi.co/2BZUxkj

— BEHIND THE NUMBERS: “Exit polls: How Doug Jones pulled off his stunning win,” by Steven Shepard: “Doug Jones needed a surge of black voter turnout and a wide gender gap to pull off his stunning victory over embattled Republican Roy Moore in Tuesday’s special Senate election. In becoming the first Democrat to win a statewide federal election in Alabama since 1992, Jones proved that Democratic fears of low turnout among African-American voters — a reliable Democratic constituency in the racially polarized state — were unfounded.

“According to exit polls conducted by the National Election Pool, blacks made up about 29 percent of the electorate on Tuesday and voted for Jones almost unanimously, 96 percent to 4 percent — results that match turnout patterns showing greater than expected vote counts in many of the Black Belt counties and the state’s urban centers. Jones also made some inroads among white voters — particularly women and those with college degrees. While Moore still won white voters by a more-than-2-to-1 margin, 68 percent to 30 percent, that is closer than other recent elections in which Republicans won nearly 4 out of 5 white voters.” http://politi.co/2z6yA4l

— THE PRESIDENT’S MISCALCULATION: “Trump suffers ‘big black eye’ in Alabama,” by Eliana Johnson: “Doug Jones didn’t just defeat Roy Moore in Alabama’s Senate race on Tuesday night — he administered the most crushing and embarrassing political blow of President Donald Trump’s young presidency. Jones’ win meant that Trump, who had endorsed Luther Strange in the Republican primary before backing Moore in the general election, threw his weight behind the losing candidate not once, but twice, in the Alabama race.

“It was an extraordinary outcome in a state that Trump carried by 28 points in last year’s presidential election. Jones’ victory, the first by a Democrat in Alabama in 25 years, exposed the limits of the president’s power in a party that is now frequently referred to as ‘the party of Trump.’ Indeed, though rank-and-file Republicans have resisted, fought, and feared Trump’s influence over GOP voters, Tuesday’s election results suggested that, whatever the president’s power, he is incapable of boosting other anti-establishment candidates to office.” http://politi.co/2BZeO9p

— @realDonaldTrump at 11:08 p.m.: “Congratulations to Doug Jones on a hard fought victory. The write-in votes played a very big factor, but a win is a win. The people of Alabama are great, and the Republicans will have another shot at this seat in a very short period of time. It never ends!”

****** A message from the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates: UAE airlines bought $42 billion in US-made commercial aircraft at the 2017 Dubai Airshow. That’s economic growth and jobs for Americans. The UAE-US commercial aviation relationship is a win-win deal. http://politi.co/2AtLDMj ******

KNOWING DOUG JONES — “Doug Jones: A Lawyer in the Thick of Alabama’s Big Moments,” by NYT’s Alex Burns and Campbell Robertson: “Before the special election on Tuesday, the largest of Mr. Jones’s historical moments, and perhaps still the most consequential, were the successful prosecutions of two of the Klansmen involved in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, nearly 40 years after the crime. Mr. Jones served as lead prosecutor. Though he continued to be involved in some of Alabama’s highest-profile legal cases in private practice, the church bombing prosecutions were his last work for the federal government until he starts his new job in Washington.

“Over the years, Mr. Jones, now 63, has remained a rare combination: part bourbon-sipping Southerner and part New York Yankees-loving Democrat. He has often called in to discuss legal matters with Paul Finebaum, whose radio talk show is akin to a religious service for college football fans in the Southeast, and he has been a longtime friend of former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., whose 1988 presidential campaign he worked on. Mr. Biden returned the favor with a rally appearance in October.” http://nyti.ms/2Cd7Oab

HAPPENING TODAY — HOUSE REPUBLICAN RUMBLE — House Republicans meet at 3 p.m. to discuss the end of year. Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has a messy situation on his hands. Government funding expires in nine days. The leadership faces resistance from appropriators, who don’t like the short-term funding of government, especially after they spent months passing the 12 spending bills; conservatives don’t like the uptick in spending; and Texans are angry because the billions they want in disaster spending might be pared back in size, and pushed back to January.

— THE CONCERN: The leadership has been talking about passing a full year of defense funding, paired with a short-term funding measure that funds government through sometime in January — a move aimed at forcing the Senate to swallow it. It’s not a sustainable position, because McConnell does not think he can pass this. So Republicans could be forced to pass a short-term spending measure, and revisit the fight in January. BUT Democrats will have much more leverage next year once Jones is sworn in.

— CONSIDER THIS: Republicans might have to swallow an immigration deal they don’t like. Congress might boost spending to new levels. They might bolster Obamacare. And they’re funding government on a two-week basis. TRUTH BOMB: They did better with President Barack Obama in the White House!

NOT A GOOD LOOK — “In texts, FBI agents on Russia probe called Trump an ‘idiot’,” by Josh Gerstein: “Two FBI agents assigned to the investigation into alleged collusion between President Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia exchanged text messages referring to the future president as an ‘idiot,’ according to copies of messages turned over to Congress Tuesday night by the Justice Department. Special Counsel Robert Mueller removed one of the agents, Peter Strzok, from the Russia probe ‘immediately’ after learning of the texts in late July, the department said in a letter to lawmakers. The other agent, Lisa Page, had already ended her assignment to Mueller’s office. Copies of the messages obtained by POLITICO show the pair reacting to various developments as the presidential race unfolded and that their reaction to Trump was negative from early on.” http://politi.co/2AC0qrm

WHERE THINGS STAND — “White House lawyer: Mueller finished with interviews he’s requested,” by Darren Samuelsohn: “Special counsel Robert Mueller on Tuesday completed interviews with the last in a slate of about two dozen current and former White House witnesses he’s initially requested as part of the investigation into Russia’s actions in the presidential election, White House attorney Ty Cobb said. It’s unclear if Mueller will seek follow-up interviews or seek to question additional people beyond the initial batch of witnesses, but the completion of this round of questioning tracks with the goal Cobb has long stated publicly that President Donald Trump’s White House was cooperating with the Russia investigators in search of a speedy resolution to the probe. …

“Cobb had previously said he expected the interviews to wrap up by Thanksgiving but, as the holiday approached, he backed away from that timeline. Cobb has also said he was looking for Mueller to issue a statement by the end of the year exonerating the president. Mueller’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Cobb’s characterization of the special counsel probe.” http://politi.co/2BiXwHE

ON TAXES …

— “GOP tax plan could bring big New Year’s surprises,” by Brian Faler: “American taxpayers may get a jolt on New Year’s Day when new tax rules — including some sudden tax increases — take effect just days after Republicans hope to pass their overhaul and have it signed into law. In an effort to juice the economy with tax cuts ahead of the midterm elections, the GOP is planning a Jan. 1 start date for its sweeping rewrite of the code. But along with Republicans’ much-advertised cuts in business and individual taxes, there would be tax increases as well, some of which have been barely debated.

“Some people who sell their homes may find they owe thousands more in taxes; investors could pay more when they sell stocks; and undocumented immigrants could find themselves cut off from a popular child tax credit Republicans plan to expand. Fringe benefits for workers such as subway passes and help with moving expenses will likely no longer be deductible, which might prompt companies to drop them.

“Payroll administrators worry they won’t be able to make changes to tax withholding by the first of the year, and both large and small businesses may face altogether new tax rules that many scarcely understand. Those overnight changes would leave the public little time to adjust, critics say, and highlight a downside to Republicans’ rapid-fire approach to rewriting the code.” http://politi.co/2nTn74o

— “GOP negotiators move closer to reducing top tax rate for high-income households but face blowback,” by WaPo’s Erica Werner and Damian Paletta: “Senior Republican negotiators were moving closer to a deal Tuesday to reduce the top tax rate for high-income households from 39.6 percent to 37 percent, blowing by political concerns about aiding the rich in order to ease passage of a $1.5 trillion tax package. The move, which needs to gain the support of a broad swath of Republicans in the House and Senate, would lower taxes for top earners throughout the country, potentially addressing the concerns of two GOP constituencies about separate tax legislation passed by the House and Senate.

“Wealthy individuals in New York, California and other high-tax states had complained that their taxes might go up under the plan, which curtails the ability of taxpayers to deduct state and local taxes. And conservative House Republicans had said it did not go far enough to bring down top rates — long a principle of Republican economic orthodoxy.” http://wapo.st/2CaPSwE

SO, at the end of the day, Republicans are cutting the top marginal tax rate.

PRESIDENT TRUMP is having lunch with tax conferees from both parties. He will deliver his “closing argument” on tax reform in the grand foyer at the White House at 3 p.m. Trump will be joined by five middle income families and talk about how the tax bill will help each one individually, according to a senior administration official. He’ll also be flanked by more than 100 people — many of them young — to try and press the point that the tax bill will have a lasting impact for the next generation.

BEN WHITE talks taxes with DOUGLAS HOLTZ-EAKIN in the latest POLITICO Money podcast: “The Republican tax plan is not going to pay for itself, and the Trump administration should stop pretending it will. That’s the message from Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office and senior adviser to President George W. Bush and the presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

“‘I don’t think these things pay for themselves. They never have,’ said Holtz-Eakin, president of the conservative think tank American Action Forum, in the latest edition of the POLITICO Money podcast. ‘But the growth is really important.’” http://politi.co/2iZQhty … Listen to the full podcast http://apple.co/2nUA2Dc

THE JUICE …

— VP MIKE PENCE’S HOLIDAY PARTY – Pool report: “Pence entertained about 60 RNC members and spouses at his residence [last night]. Each member received a photo with him upon entering. Drinks included a so-so white wine and a seasonally appropriate mulled (virgin) cider. Food included a delightful baked salmon. … Guests were entertained by Marine Corps piano, a string orchestra from the Air Force, and a Northern Irish Christian band.” Pic http://politi.co/2AU5gxd

SPOTTED: RNC chairman Ronna McDaniel, who Pence referred to as “Ronna Romney McDaniel,” Rep. Amata Radewagen (R-American Samoa), former Puerto Rico Gov. Luis Fortuño, and Henry Barbour, the powerful Mississippi committeeman and nephew of the ex-governor.

— COMMERCE SECRETARY WILBUR ROSS and his wife Hilary Geary Ross hosted their holiday party last night where “guests drank Champagne and feasted on shrimp, smoked salmon, regional cheeses and pigs in the blanket while admiring their hosts’ extraordinary collection of art works by surrealist painter Rene Magritte”, according to an attendee. SPOTTED: Attorney General and Mrs. Jeff Sessions, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Louise Linton, Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, Kellyanne Conway, Jane Stanton Hitchcock, Patty Hearst Shaw, Chris and Lorraine Wallace …

… David Rubenstein, Rima Al-Sabah, Ashley Gunn, Ken Duberstein, Alexandra de Borchgrave, the ambassadors from Kuwait, Italy, Spain, Italy, Germany and Egypt, U.S. Amb. to France Jamie McCourt, U.S. Amb. to Spain Duke Buchan, Bill Nitze, Joan Fleischmann Tobin, Kevin Chaffee, Francesca Craig, Anita McBride, Lee Folger, John and JoAnn Mason, Buffy Cafritz, Ginny Ryan, Stuart and Wilma Bernstein and Tom Quinn, Rusty Powell, C. Boyden Gray, Susan Markey, James Rockas, Wendy Teramoto, Tom Barrack and his girlfriend Cio Soler, Reed and Maggie Cordish.

PHOTO DU JOUR: Senator-elect Doug Jones and his wife Louise wave to his supporters at a watch party in Birmingham, Ala. on Dec. 12. Jones defeated Republican Roy Moore in a close special election. | John Bazemore/AP Photo

NEW POLITICO/MORNING CONSULT POLL — STEVEN SHEPARD: “Half of voters say sexual misconduct accusations against Trump are credible”: “Fifty percent of registered voters think the allegations against Trump are credible, more than the 29 percent who think they are not credible. The remaining 21 percent of voters don’t know if the allegations are credible.” http://politi.co/2z7L1wH

SARAH KLEINER in Politico Magazine: “Veterans Charity Raises Millions to Help Those Who’ve Served. But Telemarketers Are Pocketing Most of It”: http://politi.co/2iZsRoc

****** A message from the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates: Boeing is the preferred supplier for UAE commercial aviation requirements. Over the past 10 years, UAE customers have ordered $150 billion in Boeing planes, supporting 781,000 jobs in the US and injecting billions of dollars into the US economy. In 2016, the US had a $19 billion trade surplus with the UAE, America’s third largest trade surplus globally. http://politi.co/2AtLDMj ******

HMM — “Trump’s Stand-In Bureaucrats May Have Overstayed Limits,” by Bloomberg’s Josh Eidelson: “President Donald Trump’s slow pace of hiring for key government jobs has left stand-ins occupying positions for so long that it may violate time limits on acting appointments, potentially resulting in decisions being overturned in court. Enforcement actions as well as policy decisions on a variety of topics, such as easing restrictions on methane emissions from oil wells or permitting schools to offer 1 percent milk, could be challenged on the grounds that they were enacted by officials who had been in acting roles too long or were improperly delegated authority.” https://bloom.bg/2ylq6ma

— “Millions of People Post Comments on Federal Regulations. Many Are Fake,” by WSJ’s James V. Grimaldi and Paul Overberg: “A comment posted on the Federal Communications Commission’s public docket endorses a Trump-administration plan to repeal a ‘net neutrality’ policy requiring internet providers to treat all web traffic the same. Calling the old Obama-era policy an ‘exploitation of the open Internet,’ the comment was posted on June 2 by Donna Duthie of Lake Bluff, Ill. It’s a fake. Ms. Duthie died 12 years ago. The Wall Street Journal has uncovered thousands of other fraudulent comments on regulatory dockets at federal agencies, some using what appear to be stolen identities posted by computers programmed to pile comments onto the dockets.” http://on.wsj.com/2z6sKjq

VALLEY TALK — GOOGLE’S TOP SEARCHES in the U.S. this year: Hurricane Irma, Matt Lauer, Tom Petty, Super Bowl, Las Vegas Shooting, Mayweather vs McGregor Fight, Solar Eclipse, Hurricane Harvey, Aaron Hernandez, Fidget Spinner. Their 2-min. “2017 Year in Search” video http://bit.ly/2Bhbiuq

MEDIAWATCH — NEW NYT MAGAZINE COVER – Sunday’s magazine is a special “She Said” edition that is dedicated to sexual harassment: “Amanda Hess, Anita Hill, Laura Kipnis, Soledad O’Brien, Lynn Povich, Danyel Smith and Emily Bazelon discuss how the rules of the workplace should be revised — and other questions of sex, power, ambitious and fairness.” http://nyti.ms/2CcQ3HU … The cover http://bit.ly/2AygF8Z

SPOTTED late last night at Le Diplomate: Jonathan Capehart, Nick Schmit, and Obama alums Sam Tubman, Joe Paulsen and former U.S. Amb. to Singapore Kirk Wagar. When Jones’ victory was called, there were cheers at the bar. … David Gergen and Arthur Brooks having lunch at Darlington House in Dupont yesterday

SPOTTED celebrating the career of retiring Fox lobbyist Kathy Ramsey at the Phoenix Park Hotel: CIA Director Mike Pompeo and wife Susan, Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) and wife Mylene, Rep. Billy Long (R-Mo.) and wife Barbara, Rep. Susan Brooks (R-Ind.), Chip Smith, Richard Bates, John Orlando, Bryce Harlow, Eddie Fritts.

OUT AND ABOUT — Newsmax Media held its Christmas party last night in New York at the 48th Lounge on Avenue of the Americas. SPOTTED: Randy Levine, Michael Clemente, former Sen. Al D’Amato (R-N.Y.), Steve Forbes, Tom DiNapoli, Maggie Haberman, Sam Nunberg, Bo Dietl, Rick Ungar, Randi Weingarten, Bill White Pat Caddell, Betsy McCaughey, Richard Johnson, Judith Miller, Bernard and Hala Kerik, Kimberly Reed, Monica Crowley, Lloyd Grove, Joe Conason, Deroy Murdock, Scott Rasmussen, Andrew Stein, Deroy Murdock and Rita Cosby.

SPOTTED at the RIAA and Spotify charity bash at the 9:30 Club celebrating Musicians On Call with Fifth Harmony: Reps. Ted Deutch (R-Fla.), Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), and Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Michele Ballantyne, Mitch Glazier, Tom Manatos, Emery Simon, Toby Knapp, Pete Griffin, Tyler Grimm, Lee Thomas Miller, Cara Duckworth, Jonathan Lamy, Sarah Gilmore, Sean McLean, Todd Flournoy, Chris Ortman, Austin Weatherford, Chris Cylke and Jonathan Adelstein.

SPOTTED at the Jefferson Hotel yesterday afternoon for a party for Tina Brown’s new book “The Vanity Fair Diaries: 1983 – 1992” hosted by Connie Milstein, Tammy Haddad, Andrea Mitchell, Carol Melton, Gail MacKinnon, Rachel Pearson, Kathy O’Hearn, and Hilary Rosen ($16 on Amazon http://amzn.to/2C0rahB): Chris and Lorraine Wallace, Jane Harman, Teresa Carlson, Kimberley Fritts, Ambassador Dina Kawar, Susan Sher, Heather Podesta, Kathleen Parker, Mack McLarty, Lloyd Hand, Tom Forrest, David Frum, Kristi Rogers, Becca Ginsberg, JoAnne Ginsberg, Jen Bloch, Kelley McCormick, David Chavern, Margaret Sullivan, Howard Fineman, Ryan Williams, Terri Fariello, Neera Tanden, Megan Smith, John Coale, Tori O’Neal, Alyse Nelson, Tom Quinn, Linda Douglass and former Amb. John Phillips, Kevin Baron, Robin Goldman, Jill Barclay, Janet Donovan, Craig Gordon, Jane Hitchcock and Jim Hoagland.

TRANSITIONS — @rchammond: “25 new stamps in my passport from traveling with Sec. Tillerson, but I am most proud of the U.S Seal on the front. Today is my last day working alongside America’s diplomats at the @StateDept. It has been a privilege to serve in the Trump Admin. and to be part of #MAGA … After the New Year, and a few weeks off, I will return to @TheHeraldGroup to help our clients develop and execute winning communications and public affairs strategies. #MerryChristmas”.

BIRTHDAYS OF THE DAY: former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, now president and CEO of the U.S. Dairy Export Council, is 67. How he got his start in politics: “The mayor of my town, Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, was shot and killed in a City Council meeting and I was asked by his father to run for mayor. I worked on rebuilding infrastructure. The mayor’s death was related to an unfixed sewer problem that caused sewage to back up in people’s homes.” Read his Playbook Plus Q&A: http://politi.co/2yiFi3L

–Trish Regan, host of “The Intelligence Report” with Trish Regan on Fox Business Network. How she got her start in journalism: “I got my start writing for the local town newspaper in Hampton, N.H., in the fifth grade. But, I never thought I’d be a journalist. Growing up, more than anything, I wanted to be an international opera star! Seriously. Fortunately, the journalism thing turned out to be a good fallback position.” Q&A: http://politi.co/2yiFi3L

BIRTHDAYS: Todd S. Purdum … Mo Elleithee, executive director of Georgetown University’s Institute of Politics and Public Service at the McCourt School, Fox political contributor, Hillary campaign alum, former DNC spokesman, and loyal Hoya (hat tip: Ben Chang, his former Georgetown roommate) … Michael D. Smith, exec. director of MBK Alliance and Youth Opportunities at the Obama Foundation and former special assistant to President Obama (h/t Crystal Carson) … Jeffrey Schneider, principal at The Lead PR … Ben Bernanke is 64 … former Secretary of State George Shultz is 97 … Herman Cain is 72 … Allan Blutstein, America Rising’s FOIA Wizard, is 5-0 … Brian Baenig is 42 … Kelly Gleeson … Amy Mitchell … Stephenie Foster (hat tip: Jon Haber) … Washington Institute’s Stephanie Valdes … Nancy Fitzpatrick … Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) is 75 … Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) is 55. He celebrated Sunday with a big party with supporters in Silver Spring (h/t Marina McCarthy) … Rep. Donald Norcross (D-N.J.) is 59 … Edelman’s India Goodman … Morgan Williams …

… Riva Sciuto, manager of global comms and public affairs at Google … Bharat Krishnan … Rajeev Chopra … NBC News’ Haley Talbot, right-hand to Andrea Mitchell (h/t Olivia Petersen) … Nick Payton … Google’s Conor Chrisom … Peter Ogburn is 38 … Atefeh Yazdi … Karen Hicks … Joe Rozek, executive director of homeland security and counterterrorism at Microsoft Licensing … Martin Whitmer … William Todd … Ruth Wedgwood … Viviana Hurtado … Elizabeth Dial Pinkerton … Leighann Lenti … Bernard Duffi is 45 … Jill Latham … Vera Jordan … Alec Zender … George Fishman … Randy Riddle … Pat Peyton … Alan Julson (h/ts Teresa Vilmain)

****** A message from the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates: UAE airlines have received or have on order more than 800 Boeing aircraft. Emirates is the world’s largest operator of Boeing 777s and has 40 Boeing 787-10s currently on order. Flydubai operates an all-Boeing fleet of planes and has a total of 361 Boeing 737s on order. Etihad operates 24 Boeing 777s with 25 more on order, and has an additional $8.7 billion order for Boeing 787-10s. UAE airlines now serve 11 US gateway cities from Dubai and Abu Dhabi with more than 250 weekly nonstop flights. http://politi.co/2AtLDMj ******

SUBSCRIBE to the Playbook family: POLITICO Playbook http://politi.co/2lQswbh … Playbook Power Briefing http://politi.co/2xuOiqh … New York Playbook http://politi.co/1ON8bqW … Florida Playbook http://politi.co/1OypFe9 … New Jersey Playbook http://politi.co/1HLKltF … Massachusetts Playbook http://politi.co/1Nhtq5v … Illinois Playbook http://politi.co/1N7u5sb … California Playbook http://politi.co/2bLvcPl … London Playbook http://politi.co/2xfDPuK … Brussels Playbook http://politi.co/1FZeLcw … All our political and policy tipsheets http://politi.co/1M75UbX

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[vennomax]

The CEO of the oldest airline in the world explains the major blunder the industry made 20 years ago

New Post has been published on http://www.vennomax.com/global/the-ceo-of-the-oldest-airline-in-the-world-explains-the-major-blunder-the-industry-made-20-years-ago/

The CEO of the oldest airline in the world explains the major blunder the industry made 20 years ago

Pieter Elbers has been the CEO of KLM after 2014.

Amsterdam-based KLM is one half of Air France-KLM, one of the largest airlines in Europe.

Elbers signified to Business Insider KLM is “writing the book on consolidation” concurrently a time when the European aviation industry in hyper-competitive.

He further stated that one of the biggest mistakes major airlines have made was ignoring low-cost carriers.

  In continuous operation after 1919, KLM Royal Dutch is the long-established airline in the world. It’s venerable brand known for its service and iconic blue planes.

Since 2014, the Pieter Elbers has been the man tasked with leading the Dutch nationwide airline into the future. Elbers joined KLM in 1992 as an aircraft loading supervisor ahead of moving up the company’s management ladder. Today, the charismatic 47-year-old leads an airline with 33,000 employees and $12 billion in annual revenue.

Recently, Elbers sat down with the Business Insider at our headquarters in New York. Our conversation touched upon several topics including the Air France-KLM union, competition in the marketplace, and travel tips.

The authority of Air France-KLM

In 2004, KLM merged with Air France to form one of Europe’s largest and best powerful aviation conglomerates with a fleet of more than 530 planes that carry more than 93 million passengers annually.

Due to the labor issues and the hyper-competitive nature of the Europe’s commercial aviation industry, stuff have not consistently been simple for Air France-KLM. However, the company has recovered nicely, reporting a $1.2 billion over the first three quarters of this year.

“What I share with my staff is that we aren’t following the book on consolidation, we are writing the book on consolidation,” Elbers said. “And sure sometimes we have to make changes or reverse a few prior decisions, it’s nice to play a role in it.”

According to Elbers, the interplay between the two airlines is constructive.

“In the past, we were most likely true much that we should centralize a lot of activities in service to these two airlines,” the KLM CEO signified to us. “In today’s reality, for instance, in the field of digitalization, we prefer to do it in both Amsterdam and Paris.”

“And then to make sure people challenge each other, help each other, share best practices, and share ideas,” Elbers said. “We see a fantastic momentum there in terms of if something is being done on the Air France side, the KLM guys fathom they can learn from that and try the same thing or even work to improve it.”

  Competition in Europe and from abroad

The best disruptive competitive force commercial aviation over the past few decades is low-cost airlines. However, major legacy carriers underestimated the effect power of these airlines until it was too late.

“My personal view is that for especially the first decade of their existence, network carriers like ourselves sort of underestimated, ignored — almost arrogantly ignored — the rise of low-cost carriers,” Elbers said. “With that, we can see that their share in the European landscape has steadily increased and is now anywhere between 42% and 45% of all flights in Europe are with low-cost carriers. And a percentage that is significantly larger than in the US where it’s about a third.”

In response, KLM made drastic changes to the way it conducts business.

“With that, we have embarked on a program in KLM a few years ago whereby we sort of said, we’re going to defend our European network and we’re going to make sure that we do the right thing for our customers on the European network,” he said.

“So we have lowered our cost, we have increased our fleet utilization, we have changed our commercial offers on most likely 60% of all our European destinations, that are about 80 destinations. We do have levels that are matching the low-cost carriers. So this combination of cost-cutting on the one-hand side, investing in our product and our service.”

However, low-cost carriers aren’t the only competitive threats to Air France-KLM. In countries such as China and Japan, high-speed rail has been taken a toll on domestic air travel. But that hasn’t been a major issue for KLM.

“High-speed rail internationally in Europe is a very, true small number. Domestically in countries like France it is relevant, between various countries it’s hardly relevant because of all of the dissimilar systems. It’s not honestly taking traffic,” Elbers said.

Things are dissimilar when it comes to the three Persian-Gulf mega-carriers, Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar Airways. This been a major topic of contention for US and European carriers that allege the ME3 have been propped up by more than $50 billion in authority subsidies.

“The fact that we have new competition is not an issue, but what the aviation community has been rather vocal about is to ensure that we have a level playing field and that we all play by the same rules,” Elbers said. “I think it’s true important further as a commitment to our staff. If we ask them to make sacrifices and to contribute to the change and the well-being of the company we should be able to do that although fighting on an even playing field.”

Tips for frequent flyers

Elbers is a true frequent flyer. The KLM CEO is on a plane several times a month. As a result, he’s worked out a few tricks to make air travel easier. For instance, Elbers stresses the require for organization when packing.

“Everything is in a fixed place. Everything is full in the same way. I’m boarding an aircraft about every other week, so I want to make sure I don’t overlook anything,” he said. “I require anything to be done in the true same way. I fathom where anything is packed, I fathom the sequence of packing it. So yes, I do it in the same true structured way.”

“What I do is I have a main bag for sort of my running stuff and a few of the non-business related items. And then I have a small carry-on luggage for company shirts, ties, and so-on,” Elbers added.

And then there’s jet lag. For Elbers, it’s all about exercise to beginning the day.

“Beating jet lag for me is an fresh morning run,” he said. “So, wherever I go, I wake up early, I do my run, and that’s, for me, the way to beat the jet lag.”

[tortuga-aak]

The CEO of the oldest airline in the world explains the major mistake the industry made 20 years ago

Pieter Elbers has been the CEO of KLM since 2014.

Amsterdam-based KLM is one half of Air France-KLM, one of the largest airlines in Europe.

Elbers told Business Insider KLM is "writing the book on consolidation" during a time when the European aviation industry in hyper-competitive. 

He also said that one of the biggest mistakes major airlines have made was ignoring low-cost carriers. 

In continuous operation since 1919, KLM Royal Dutch is the old airline in the world. It's venerable brand known for its service and iconic blue planes.

Since 2014, the Pieter Elbers has been the man tasked with leading the Dutch national airline into the future. Elbers joined KLM in 1992 as an aircraft loading supervisor before moving up the company's management ladder. Today, the charismatic 47-year-old leads an airline with 33,000 employees and $12 billion in annual revenue.

Recently, Elbers sat down with the Business Insider at our headquarters in New York. Our conversation touched upon several topics including the Air France-KLM union, competition in the marketplace, and travel tips.

The state of Air France-KLM

In 2004, KLM merged with Air France to form one of Europe's largest and most powerful aviation conglomerates with a fleet of more than 530 planes that carry more than 93 million passengers annually.

Due to the labor issues and the hyper-competitive nature of the Europe's commercial aviation industry, things have not always been easy for Air France-KLM. However, the company has recovered nicely, reporting a $1.2 billion through the first three quarters of this year.

"What I share with my staff is that we aren't following the book on consolidation, we are writing the book on consolidation," Elbers said. "And sure sometimes we have to make changes or reverse some earlier decisions, it's nice to play a role in it."

REUTERS/Benoit TessierAccording to Elbers, the interplay between the two airlines is constructive.

"In the past, we were probably very much that we should centralize a lot of activities in service to these two airlines," the KLM CEO told us. "In today's reality, for instance, in the field of digitalization, we prefer to do it in both Amsterdam and Paris."

"And then to make sure people challenge each other, help each other, share best practices, and share ideas," Elbers said. "We see a great momentum there in terms of if something is being done on the Air France side, the KLM guys know they can learn from that and try the same thing or even work to improve it."

Competition in Europe and from abroad

The most disruptive competitive force commercial aviation over the past few decades is low-cost airlines. However, major legacy carriers underestimated the effect power of these airlines until it was too late.

"My personal view is that for especially the first decade of their existence, network carriers like ourselves sort of underestimated, ignored — almost arrogantly ignored — the rise of low-cost carriers," Elbers said. "With that, we can see that their share in the European landscape has steadily increased and is now anywhere between 42% and 45% of all flights in Europe are with low-cost carriers. And a percentage which is significantly larger than in the US where it’s about a third."

In response, KLM made drastic changes to the way it conducts business. 

"With that, we have embarked on a program in KLM a few years ago whereby we sort of said, we’re going to defend our European network and we're going to make sure that we do the right thing for our customers on the European network," he said.

"So we have lowered our cost, we have increased our fleet utilization, we have changed our commercial offers on probably 60% of all our European destinations, which are about 80 destinations. We do have levels which are matching the low-cost carriers. So this combination of cost-cutting on the one-hand side, investing in our product and our service."

KLMHowever, low-cost carriers aren't the only competitive threats to Air France-KLM. In countries such as China and Japan, high-speed rail has been taken a toll on domestic air travel. But that hasn't been a major issue for KLM.

"High-speed rail internationally in Europe is a very, very small number. Domestically in countries like France it is relevant, between various countries it's hardly relevant because of all of the different systems. It's not really taking traffic," Elbers said.

Things are different when it comes to the three Persian-Gulf mega-carriers, Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar Airways. This been a major topic of contention for US and European carriers that allege the ME3 have been propped up by more than $50 billion in government subsidies.

"The fact that we have new competition is not an issue, but what the aviation community has been rather vocal about is to ensure that we have a level playing field and that we all play by the same rules," Elbers said. "I think it's very important also as a commitment to our staff. If we ask them to make sacrifices and to contribute to the change and the well-being of the company we should be able to do that while fighting on an even playing field."

    Tips for frequent flyers

Elbers is a true frequent flyer. The KLM CEO is on a plane several times a month. As a result, he's worked out a few tricks to make air travel easier. For instance, Elbers stresses the need for organization when packing.

"Everything is in a fixed place. Everything is packed in the same way. I’m boarding an aircraft about every other week, so I want to make sure I don't forget anything," he said. "I need everything to be done in the very same way. I know where everything is packed, I know the sequence of packing it. So yes, I do it in the same very structured way."

"What I do is I have a special bag for sort of my running stuff and some of the non-business related items. And then I have a small carry-on luggage for business shirts, ties, and so-on," Elbers added.

And then there's jet lag. For Elbers, it's all about exercise to start the day.

"Beating jet lag for me is an early morning run," he said. "So, wherever I go, I wake up early, I do my run, and that's, for me, the way to beat the jet lag."

NOW WATCH: The best travel hacks, according to a top airline CEO

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