Two of my favourite types of 'shut-this-thread down' entreaties on this forum are: 1) There's no point in speculating on rumours; 2) There's no point in commenting on this incident as we only have one side of the story. There are others, of course.

Without such conjecture, this forum might turn into the Mary Celeste of FT.

Anyway, my source told me it was the RAF joining oneworld (great TP-run opportunities!), once the UK leaves the European Defence Agency post-Brexit.

Fair point on the network, I don't think I see a likely solution to that in the present time though. IG seem to mostly be flying within Italy or long haul so wouldn't be the answer [at least at present]. There aren't really any other well placed Continental Europe options that aren't already part of ST or *A that I can think of...?

It would also seem like somewhat odd timing for IG, given Al-Baker's recent comments and the QR interest in IG - but his comments may well be hot air again. I think they'd be a more attractive proposition to an alliance a few years down the road when they are fully stocked with ex-QR Dreamliners and however many 737s they're receiving so that they are running a really extensive network both short and long haul. Joining an alliance might be one path to fuelling that growth, though maybe they fit OW Connect better for that.

And I fully agree with you :) I'm not sure what the solution would be right now to plug this particular gap. The only real non-aligned carriers in central Continental Europe right now are U2 and FR, and I don't see them willingly stepping forward to join the OW alliance. So I guess it is a case of dreaming that there is quite a significant gap, but with no real contender to fill said gap :(

According to Wiki, IG will end up with 20 737Max and 30 788. That's isn't gonna give a particularly impressive short-haul connection network for Europe. Either a few routes served frequently or a bit of a lottery regarding decent connections to the LH network [that is: without making codeshare agreements to build that feeder system].

On the other hand, that's a rather larger fleet than RJ boast.

The only real solution I see is waiting for the Italian government to let AZ die so IG can aggressively grow.

I'm sure that will happen any day now.

Presumably another possibility could be Fiji Air joining as a full member, rather than a Connect partner...

Surely emirates joining would be best. Biggest travel region being missed out with cheapest influence to low cost resources and fuel, especially with QR offering little ME.

QR been threatening to leave so long. They can go to skyteam.

Malev really did fill a key hole in oneworld until they went belly up. The only independent carrier of any size in EE is AirSerbia which is an Etihad partner. Everyone else is either Star Alliance (Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian, LOT Polish, Croatian, Adria (Slovenia), Aegean, Turkish) or SkyTeam (Tarom Romanian, Czech, Alitalia)

So after the announcement is there some humble pie to be eaten?

https://www.oneworld.com/news-inform..._col_count%3D7

I saw once that RAM/AT had a flight from Casablance to IAD, which might tempt me to try something different. But the sloping seat in their Business is a bit of a downer. But ex-LGW might just compensate!

Africa certainly has its fair share of basket case carriers, but I'd never thought of RAM sitting even close to them. I think maybe someone at your NGO has a more personal issue with the airline.

There is much speculation about LOT and there is a good argument that they would be better off in different aliance. But the problem isn't just that, they would then need a new loyalty program to replace miles&more. They would also need something like avios as part of the deal