This is bad for the Alliance, and for us Anyone who knows if Copa will leave ST too?? ST ends up with almost no coverage in Central and South America then, and loose it's New York hub. I am not a big fan of CO, but they have many key cities in South America, easily reached from New York.

I think ST will be the weakest alliance after this, with a bunch of insignificant and crappy airlines such as Allitalia and Aeroflot... While SA and OW have good coverage throughout the world, with the departure of CO/Copa ST will lack coverage in South- and Central America, North-East USA, South East Asia, Middle East, India and Oceania.

I think the two significant alliances have been more aggressive and accessed key-markets like Middle East with the entries of Royal Jordanian and Turkish Airlines. Soon Air India will join SA - that's also an significant carrier in a key-market. So where will this leave ST...? There is not many significant carriers left to choose from....