Interview with Carolyn McCall; Interview with Siim Kallas
RICHARD QUEST, HOST, "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS": Hello and welcome to MARKETPLACE EUROPE. I'm Richard Quest. This week, we're focusing on transport and the growing need for infrastructure that could help or hinder economies and businesses become more profitable. We hear from the EU transport commissioner, who says he wants a network, not a patchwork. We visit Siemens, makers of high speed trains. Making them as fast as they can. and the chief executive of easyJet tells us she's giving high speed rail a run for its money.</s>QUEST: Let's talk about Europe just and -- because you're a European, you're a pan-European carrier.</s>CAROLYN MCCALL, CEO, EASYJET: We are.</s>QUEST: You compete against other airlines. You compete against high speed rail now</s>MCCALL: Yes, we do.</s>QUEST: Do you consider high speed rail to be a competitor?</s>MCCALL: Absolutely. Yes. It's much more expensive than we do, but we absolutely compete with them. We run ad campaigns against them.</s>QUEST: In Europe, do you see more consolidation coming along? And if so, are you going to be part of it?</s>MCCALL: And when you think about the cost headwinds for this industry, you know, we've had unprecedented high fuel for a very sustainable period of time. That's going to cost us 220 pounds more, year over year. Emissions trading schemes for the first time ever. That's going to cost us money. So we've got some really severe headwinds. In addition to that, we have a Eurozone in crisis. So I think consolidation is going to be inevitable in some way over the next three to five years. EasyJet's entire strategy is based on its organic growth, not on M&A.;</s>QUEST: St Pancras Station in London -- it cost more than a billion euros to upgrade this station, the high speed rail and the Eurostar. The EU transport commissioner, Siim Kallas, now wants to have a trans- European core transport network that would involve more than 80 ports, 15,000 more kilometers of high speed rail and, supposedly, would help European business become more profitable.</s>JULIET MANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Let's talk about the plans that you've got. You -- you've got a huge new project for infrastructure all around Europe to -- to change the road -- road map. What -- what's the -- the -- the main new thing we're going to learn there?</s>SIIM KALLAS, EU COMMISSIONER FOR TRANSPORT: We -- we have designed a regulation which then -- then gives birth to a probably better functioning European transport network.</s>MANN: You said better functioning. Where are we going to see improvement? Are you talking about...</s>KALLAS: Yes.</s>MANN: -- the network getting bigger? Are you talking about particular stretches of -- of track becoming faster?</s>KALLAS: We have a patchwork of -- of national projects. We want to create more network. The missing links are the east-west connections, interoperability and less fragmented investments. These are the most important things.</s>MANN: As you said yourself, there's a lot of talking to be done. And that all takes time. You know, if -- if a government itself wants to do something like this, they get on with it. Look at the French. They want to expand their high speed rail network. They found the funding. They make it happen.</s>KALLAS: Um-hmm.</s>MANN: They aren't -- with you getting involved like this, aren't you slowing down the process? Aren't you already creating more stumbling blocks?</s>KALLAS: No, I don't think so, because that's a big -- meant big problems. If one member state develops this network, the high speed train, inside this country, it cannot run to another country. Now, this particular example is one of the biggest success stories. You have Brussels-Paris. You have Brussels and Paris- London. You have Brussels- London. A well functioning network. And it is, of course, intergovernmental. It is -- it is a pan-European project. So we try to facilitate these types of projects.</s>MANN: So how...</s>KALLAS: We...</s>MANN: -- how do you know if your expectations, to -- to be realistic, bearing in mind the -- the economic situation in Europe at the moment?</s>KALLAS: That's -- that's interesting. You see, the member states mostly, the governments, they have not got so much investment projects, because everybody understands that the investments into transport infrastructure and other infrastructure greatly facilitates growth.</s>MANN: Talk me through some of the other key pillars, if you like, and -- of the future of transport plans.</s>KALLAS: We have, in my view, two main -- main problems. One problem is this congestion, which is a very serious problem in Europe. On roads, but though not only roads, also airlines or -- or air space. And second, the dependence of oil. So if we want to reduce the dependence of oil and reduce the congestion, we must learn some structural changes. One better alternative is to create a better functioning railway network.</s>MANN: Are you saying railway is good, roads and air bad?</s>KALLAS: No, we are not saying so. We -- we simply say, see that if we rely only on aviation and roads, we will be in troubles, because these will be so squeezed and we don't -- don't have enough space to -- to airplanes and -- and cars and trucks.</s>QUEST: Passengers getting ready to board one of the 27 Eurostar high speed trains that run every day between London, Paris and Brussels. These trains have been in service for some years. And when we come back after the break, a sneak preview of the new Eurostar engines.