But still ST will end up as the weakest alliance! Most of the carriers you are mentioning are small regional carriers...And I think it will take ages for them to join ST. Like MEA have been pending for YEARS, but nothing happens. I would love MEA to join, cause I enjoy their service and attendants Varig is insignificant compared to TAM. I would rather like to see TAM join ST. But of course, they seem to be joining Star Alliance... But I do understand them, why join the weakest alliance when you can join the biggest...?

EY or GF would definately be a great addition, as they are growing rapidly and serve many destinations overall. Anyways, I don't see anything of this happen in the near future...

And yeah, Delta's New York operations are nothing compared to those of CO's.

As for now, there are many regions throughout the world where ST are non-existant. Even though Delta might open a US-AUS route it won't help much!