JOUY31

China Eastern Airlines has signed a memorandum of understanding with the SkyTeam alliance, in order to formally become a full fledged member by mid-2011. SkyTeam will be the strongest alliance, with two partners, in what is probably the market with the strongest potential for development in the coming years. ^

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-relea...-91013114.html

http://corporate.airfrance.com/en/pr.../61/?tx_ttnews

brunos

This is indeed great news for ST.
Not so great for AMS/CDG pax as nonstop competition to China will be drastically reduced and prices likelyy to go up.

JC25

AshleyB

MU is just a dreadful airline (practically in-a-league-of-its-own dreadful!) but it is on the whole a good move for Skyteam in China. It does not however address the SE Asia gap which so reduces ST as an alliance. Maybe MU and CZ will launch some HKG-SE Asia services. They would still be terrible but it would be good to have a couple of really cheap options ex HKG.

irishguy28

You do know that Vietnam Airlines is joining SkyTeam in June 2010, with Garuda Indonesia expected to join in 2011?

typhoon

Overall, a welcome addition to SkyTeam.

China Eastern short-haul isn't that bad. Whilst I prefer China Southern, on-board service on MU service in economy is better than what you get in Europe in business.

I have not had the pleasure of long-haul, but their new Heathrow services offer flat bed seating.

They have a growing ASEAN network, and a major hub in Shanghai, with large plans for a hub at the new Kunming Airport, which opens in January 2012.

MU have acquired Shanghai airlines and this announcement will also bring them into the fold.

AshleyB

I do indeed. VN and GA are both improving but still quite weak regional carriers. GA has historic reliablity and safety issues (I spend about 1/3 the year in Jakarta so I have alot of experience with them!) and a poor reputation as regards announcing and then dropping new routes according to the shifting sands of political interference in management. I would add that CGK is emphatically NOT an airport likely to attract correspondence traffic (e.g. FB member flying SIN-TPE is not going to willingly fly via CGK on GA!). VN is fine if you are travelling to Vietnam. There is still no ST coverage HKG-SIN (THE premier high yield high traffic regional route) or really much intra-Asia at all beyond the once-daily DL NRT services ex SIN and BKK (both leave at dawn). Compared to Oneworld and *Alliance Skyteam continues to be by far the weakest alliance in the most important market in the worldn and the addition of VN and GA, however welcome, does little to change that.

irishguy28

Thanks. I knew about GA's safety record but I am wondering if they will forever have to carry that baggage with them. And I'm looking forward to trying VN at some stage in the (hopefully near) future.

Wouldn't it be great if MH finally got into bed with SkyTeam?

AshleyB

The safety problems at GA were, until very recently, quite serious. GA is an airline that is managed according to poltical whim as much as commercial good practise or industry standards. Decisions (including decisions relating to compliance) have often been taken under pressure exerted by political/business figures with no knowledge of the airline industry. Despite efforts by the CEO to change this he has only been partly successful. The safety and compliance issues have largely been addressed but the corporate culture remains unsettlingly corrupt and lacking in transparency. So it is not so much 'baggage' as legitimate concern about the ability of GA management to keep the company on the straight and narrow. VN may also suffer to a lesser extent from some of the same pressures as GA. Given these concerns I would argue that Skyteam still lacks a serious, credible, SE Asian partner.

People say that MH will NEVER be permitted to join Skyteam due AF objections.

Verboten

It also says a lot about how bad the latter is

jsfr

That seems to be a longheld belief on this and other forums - however, nobody has ever come up with any indication that there is fact behind the belief.

We have always believed it - therefore it must be true...

Goldorak

hmm here are again the mysterious AF objections for MH I would be happy to hear one day what are these objections. I never read any clear explanation for this on this forum except that AF would like to protect its lucrative code-share agreement with QF for Australian routes. But this seems a very weak argument to me. Any explanations are very welcome

AshleyB

Yes it does seem odd this rumoured 'objection'. Could it not be that MH just does not want to be in alliance?

Yaatri

I hope all classes on China Eastern will earn Medallion miles. Deeply discounted classes earn only 30% miles on China Eastern.
Skymiles has so many partners that earn no MQMs or earn a less than 100% redeemable miles.
Restrictions on earning medallion miles on many airline partners and on many classes of full Skyteam members is the one of the most annoying features of Skyteam when compared with WorldPerks. You were guaranteed to earn elite miles on all KLM flights, fore xample, but now, V class on KLM doesn't earn miles. Leisure flyers like myself, who rely on the cheapest fares are being sidelined. If it benefits Delta to sideline leisure flyers, DL could be right. But it's questionable whether DL benefits by sidelining lesure flyers. If capacity continues to be tight, I suppose DL can affors to ignore leisure flyers. Asian pacific Region is expected to experience most of the growth in the near future. I think capacity in that region will grow, along with the traffic, barring a hike in fuel, while growth in the U.S. will continue to to be sluggish.

My family and I have maintained elite status on WP for 11 years (I was a PE all along) during which time my wife and children were Gold or Platinum during 7 of those 11 years, all on my dime. Now only I, a million miler, maintain status with DL.