Aer Lingus Entry

It’s also possible that Oneworld could move toward granting membership to less-established carriers in emerging nations -- where incompatible systems and differing service standards have been an issue -- especially since some markets seem likely to transition to low-cost carriers without ever developing fully fledged network operators.

“We’ve got to be open to everything and anything,” Gurney said. “There are some markets that have skipped the cycle, and if we want to have a partner that’s operating in those markets we have to re-think how we collaborate.”

Plans for Ireland’s Aer Lingus to join Oneworld after its purchase by BA owner International Consolidated Airlines Group SA provide an opportunity for the alliance to simplify the process for integrating new members, he said, though the timing is a matter for IAG and “scoping work” hasn’t yet started.

“We’re also intending to bring Aer Lingus into the trans-Atlantic joint business that we have with Finnair and American Airlines,” Walsh said, noting that there’s some overlap in the efforts to bring Aer Lingus into those tie-ups.

“The two go hand-in-hand, because some of the things we need to do to bring them into the joint business needs to be done for oneworld membership first. They’re on parallel platforms at the moment,” Walsh said.

“The plan is Aer Lingus will rejoin the oneworld alliance and therefore will benefit from the arrangements that apply,” Walsh said in an interview with Today in the Sky last week.

“We don’t have a specific timeline. We’re working as quickly as we can,” he said. “But these issues aren’t always as simple as they might appear. IT (information technology) tends to be the issue that drives the timeline on most of this — getting the Aer Lingus systems capable of interacting with the other oneworld carrier systems.”

“I would expect it in 2017, but I don’t have an exact date,” he added.