nomad1974

Nope. I don't think LX was ever part of SkyTeam. They were rumoured to be joining oneworld but then LH bought a stake in them and they went the Star Alliance way.

nomad1974

China Airlines is a possibility. However, Jet seems to be more interested in Star Alliance - that is if they can accommodate both them and Air-India.

JOUY31

I think it is also about the time needed for each airline to upgrade its internal processes to fit an alliance's pre-requisites.

kiwiandrew

apologies for carrying this further OT but a couple of corrections are called for

LX were more than rumoured to be joining Oneworld - as you can see from this press release dated 23/09/2003 they accepted an invitation to join

http://www.swiss.com/web/EN/about_sw...0030923_2.aspx

SWISS has accepted an invitation from the oneworld alliance to become a member of this global grouping of leading air carriers.

less than 9 months later ( and considerably before the deal with LH ) they decided not to proceed with Oneworld membership - please note that at this stage they still intended to continue bilateral arrangements with individual OW carriers

http://www.swiss.com/web/EN/about_sw...0040603_2.aspx

SWISS has decided not to proceed with the envisaged integration of its Swiss TravelClub frequent flyer programme into the Executive Club, its counterpart at British Airways, under the present conditions. The sizeable costs of such an integration and the drawbacks it would bring currently outweigh its projected mid- to long-term benefits. As the abandonment of the proposed integration also means that the bilateral agreement between SWISS and British Airways cannot be put into practice, SWISS is unable to join the oneworld alliance at the present time.

SWISS and British Airways have reached an amicable agreement on how they now intend to proceed. SWISS’s bilateral commercial agreements with other oneworld members remain unaffected by these developments.

it was not until several months AFTER the decision not to proceed with Oneworld membership that the LH deal took shape - refer to press release dated 13/03/2005

http://www.swiss.com/web/EN/about_sw..._20050313.aspx

Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Swiss International Air Lines AG are in constructive negotiations about the take-over and integration of SWISS into the Lufthansa group

IMHO , LH did not pull LX away from OW - BA pushed them away ( the same way that they pushed KL into the waiting arms of AF )

anyway , to get back OT - while I believe congratulations are indeed due for VN , I continue to be astonished that Skyteam have so far failed to recruit MH , an airline that has bilateral arrangments with a number of important Skyteam carriers and whose service , IMHO , knocks the socks off the often overrated SQ .

I know that there are constant rumours that AF keep blocking them but none of the arguments given for blocking them make much sense ( the two most common ones I hear are : 1 / AF is frightened because MH will show them up in terms of service ; 2 / AF does not want to jeopardise its codeshares on the CDG-SIN-Australia route with QF - my response to the former is that speaking from personal experience MH would wipe the floor with AF on any route on which they competed , but look at their route maps , two less competitive/more complimentary route maps would be hard to find , so how would MH be a threat to AF on any route other than CDG-KUL ? In any case , the fact that service on MH outshines the crappy service on KL hasnt exactly put KL off working with them . As for the latter argument , let's get real , exactly how important is the Australia-SIN-CDG market to AF - enough to block an otherwise ideal partner ? Does that seem at all sensible to anyone ? )

I am still looking forward to one day hearing the announcement that MH are joining Skyteam ... but I hope that they do not wait too long , AF should be very careful not to do a "BA" and push MH into the arms of OW

soorox

I remembered that MH was given an opportunity to join OW offered by Qantas but deferred the offer and believe they rather join SkyTeam

When VN join SkyTeam (2010) are they required to paint 1 of their aircraft in SkyTeam colours? If they are, can't wait to see what it would look like! hopefully they accept their 787's by then and paint it in SkyTeam colours!

PMMMDL

At one time many years ago prior to the establishment of Skyteam, Delta, Swiss Air, Austrian, and Singapore had a psuedo alliance that included code shares and a RTW product.

hfly

Yes Atlantic Excellence, the first alliance, referenced many times on FT.

Henry III

Some official news, for those who can't work out how to use www.skyteam.com:
and
--Henry

PMMMDL

China Eastern's Chairman announced their intention to try to join Skyteam.

Here's a fair use clip from ATW:


"It also intends to join CZ in SkyTeam, Liu revealed earlier (ATWOnline, April 3). Ma said CEA's lack of alliance membership "takes part of the blame for our operating loss, as we always transport passengers from point-to-point instead of carrying them through a hub-and-spoke system. It not only can boost our revenue to join an international airline alliance but more importantly, it can help us enhance our management level, which can benefit us most" "

soorox

Great News that CEA decided to join ST! It looks like we need more room for SE Asia as Garuda & MAS also want to join!

:::When is CI joining? I thought they really wanted to?

FB-guru

I'd say MH, SQ or EK

Henry III

EK? That would be good! I believe they have a 'mini-alliance' with Air Lanka and have an FFP arrangement with CO - but the latter may dissolve when CO join *A. But what would EK gain from ST?

soy

Wishful thinking, none of these will join ST. This sounds more like a wish list of who could join.
Cannot see SQ leaving *A, MH seem to like being independent and cannot see EK being interested either.

Supersonic Swinger

Is this based on anything or just speculation? Any links to support this?

This ended last year when Emirates' management contract for Sri Lankan was not extended - although I think they still have a minority stake

Akiestar

Hi everyone! I'm new, and I ran into this thread (although I know about FlyerTalk) out of sheer coincidence on a rainy Thursday, but I think it's well worth it.

Once upon a time, in another forum that I'm active in, I allocated major Southeast Asian airlines (TG, SQ, MH, GA, VN, PR and BI) into the three alliances, and this is what I came up with:

* Star: TG, SQ
* Oneworld: VN, BI
* SkyTeam: MH, GA, PR

I'm a staunch supporter of Philippine Airlines entering SkyTeam, although word is circling around that it may end up in Oneworld. It seems that out of all the major airlines in the region (BI excluded), PR isn't even a blip in the alliances' radar screens. Now that VN is joining the alliance though, I have to rework the list again.

Still, I hope PR will join SkyTeam. Hope I'm welcome to join in!