Has anybody put thought into the new Sabena carrier - SN Brussels Airlines.

They have no parther and they have a lot of routes in Europe.

From their website, I've found the following cities to be served by SN Brussels:

Banjul (The Gambia), Berlin (Tempelhof), Bilbao, Birmingham, Bologna, Bordeaux, Bristol, Conakry, Copenhagen, Dakar, Douala (Cameroon), Entebbe, Florence, Geneva, Gothenburg, Hamburg, Helsinki, Kigali, Kinsasha, London (Heathrow), Luanda, Lyon, Manchester, Marseille, Milan, Monrovia, Munich, Nairobi, Newcastle, Oslo, Paris, Prague, Stockholm, Strasbourg, Toulouse, Turin, Venice, Vienna, Warsaw, and Yaounde (Cameroon).

Maybe somebody should send Isom an e-mail or letter.

A Euro hub at BRU would make an interesting discussion.

Personally I think the 'logical' partner and alliance choices of FlyerTalkers and the sound business choices faced by the planners at US Airways may not overlap 100%. I mean, hey, who wouldn't like to se BA and CX added to our award redemption options. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

I think US Airways will be looking for lots of additional domestic feed from a larger airline to bolster its position on the east coast of the USA. UA and AA are the logical choices as they both lack the deep route structure in the east that US does have. In return for access to US's route structure on the east coast, US will gain reach beyond its CLT, PIT, and PHL hubs.

My personal choice would be for US to team up with AA and the oneworld alliance but if I had to bet $$$, I'd guess US and UA (and Star Alliance?).

They're going to get a decent domestic deal with somebody. The east coast route structure,along with the Shuttle, is too good. Besides, by putting something in place, the other carrier involved will have a leg up on a future merger, having demonstrated on a defacto basis that there has been no abuse.

Aren't SN already part of Qualiflyer?

US Air has very limited west coast presence and it's east coast routes are second to none. From a domestic perspective, the best bets would be a carrier that is strong in the west, but has limited east coast routing. UA and AA hardly fit these criteria. AA, in particular, has a decent east coast route structure and also is strong in the Caribbean, where US seems to be expanding. AA's European routes are largely centered on the UK, where US also has a fair presence. Although personally I am hoping US joins One World, I would be surprised if that happens given AA's presence. Frankly, a domestic alliance with AS or America West would serve US better than a larger, world alliance.

According to various industry sources, the NW/CO/KLM trio is also in the running to linkup with US. Given the strong possibility of BA deepening its ties with KLM, this grouping could emerge as a formidable contender to a weakening OneWorld and strained Star...