very interesting , I can see this going one of two ways

Obviously CO jumping ship is a major blow to Skyteam and they can either ;

Use every contractual/legal avenue available to them to slow the process - besides the unspecified restriction which remains in place until '9 months after DL/NW consommation' there may be other contractual arrangements with Skyteam itself - for example when MX left Star there was a lot of talk of an element in the exit clause which required a minimum two year 'stand down' after the termination of Star before MX could join a competing alliance - if Skyteam have a similar arrangement it could mean a period of 3 years or so before CO could become a member of Star although that would not necessarily prevent them from making bilateral arrangements with individual Star airlines in the intervening period

or

Much like the situation where a senior executive announces their intention to join a competitor often the need to get them out of your organisation and away from strategic information as quickly as possible means that you choose not to enforce 'golden handcuff' clauses - you just get them out of your organisation as quickly as you can because a hostile entity on the inside can cause you a lot of damage - just because Skyteam/NW can enforce contractual elements does not mean that they will necessarily choose to do so .


It will be interesting to see which way Skyteam/NW decide to handle this situation - drag it on as long as possible , or try for a quick clean break