Originally Posted by
Weekend Away
MEA and Saudia in the Middle East, and Saudia flies a lot of long haul routes.
Xiamen, China Airlines, Vietnam Airlines, and Garuda Indonesia in East/Southeast Asia.
There's decent coverage in both of those regions.
There's nothing in Australasia or South America, and KQ can't cover all of Africa by itself.
VS doesn't really offer much to SkyTeam as a whole. There's no short haul network, and the bulk of their flying is to the US and Caribbean. None of their Africa/Asia flying is to another SkyTeam hub. This just doesn't make sense unless more news is coming. They already had the JV with DL/AF/KL. What could this move over VS?
VS have been getting flights into India and Pakistan and are thinking about starting service to CGK, PTY, CCU, and even looking into EZE, GRU and other South American options in the future. Their endgame is to compete with BA in terms of dominance at LHR, but nothing is set and stone.
If KQ absorbs SAA, then coverage of Africa becomes a lot stronger to be fair.