Oneworld's Membership Recruitment
 

oneworld has failed to recruit new Asian airline member again......:(, as BR has applied to join Star Alliance.
I think Oneworld should increase its pace in recruiting MH, QR, to fill up this gap.
Also, i think CX / BA / QF should actively sponsor BR to join OW just before BR applies to Join *A.

There's not much to lose even if BR joined *A. Even if they did apply to join oneworld, CX would probably veto since the distance between HKG and TPE is small - leading to BR eating into CX's traffic. Plus, oneworld needs Southeast Asian member airlines, not the already covered North Asia (with CX and JL).

CX doesn't seem to want anyone remotely competitive nearby in OW.

QR's head has expressed his desire for QR to consider Star.

MH was IIRC invited to join as a founding member of OW but it turned it down. If anything, they have always been rumoured to be looking at SkyTeam.

Rumours are that Shenzen and Pakistan Airlines are to join Star, and Jet Airways are being courted by SkyTeam.

Beyond Hainan and Philippine Airlines, I struggle to see who is left in East Asia that OW could recruit. OW may have to settle for being a niche alliance in Asia with only 2 hubs (or three if Jetstar and Jetstar Asia were to ever join).

but, BR is more suitable to join OW rather than *A, as:
1.its frequent flyer structure is much more similar to the standard of Oneworld, dividing into OW Ruby,Sapphire and Emerald is easier.
2.BR has codeshares with AA, QF.
3.BR can bring a new destination for Oneworld -Macau (MFM)
4.BR can assist BA to launch LHR-TPE route via codesharing, also providing a extra point for Kangaroo Route.

I think Kingfisher is in Asia (???)

BR would bring in a few mainland China destinations. It's been discussed earlier that with OW + BR, dominance of the HKG-TPE market would be an issue.

There is some overlap in Northeast Asia with JL. I'm not sure though whether OW can rely on JL indefinitely.

It would make me really happy if we even got a hint from OW management that they take gaps in Asia coverage seriously. With the potential demise of JL last year, there was some talk of whether OW would continue to be viable without them. I can't think of another alliance that might not be viable if one carrier went under, except maybe DL in ST, and that's a lot less likely.

While we are on this, does anyone have any idea as to when KingFisher's integration into OneWorld is expected to be complete?

Not really relevant.

1. FFP structure doesn't affect the choice of alliances. Look at UA, they have a 5-level system, with GS (*G), 1K (*G), 1P (*G), 2P (*S), 3P (*S).
2. BR also has codeshares with CO, US, NH (particularly close relationship with CO) - whom are all *A members.
3. Macau is an insignificant and dying aviation market. HKG can easily replace it due to the proximity and recent introduction of the airport SkyPier facility, with far more destinations than Macau.
4. Again, Taiwan lacks traffic and even there are almost no Australian routes ex-TPE, which I think only SYD is served by CI. The Kangaroo Route cannot only rely on connecting traffic without any O&D traffic to support.

CX already covers Macau; there's a direct ferry link to Macau without ever going through immigrations and customs at HKG.


What OW needs is a mainland China carrier that allows access to intra-China routes like Beijing-Shanghai (neither JL or CX has intra mainland-China rights) and which also allows to complete the golden triangle of Tokyo-Seoul-Beijing/Shanghai. Right now it's a one-way street because neither CX or JL doesn't serve the missing Korea-China link. The only way this is possible is to back track to NRT/HND or HKG.

I think the point here is that while BR doesn't fill any of the more glaring gaps in OW coverage, it was a viable candidate for OW membership. It has partnerships with OW airlines, makes SE Asia and Mainland China a bit more accessible, and shores up Northeast Asia in the face of JL cutbacks. BR also fits (IMO) with OW's image of "quality" airlines - certainly one of the better of the unaligned carriers in Asia.

Who knows that OW will look like in 5 years, but to some extent, the airline alliance game is zero-sum. There are not a lot of remaining unaligned carriers in the world, and the number of new carriers every year that might make viable alliance partners is small. Quantity isn't everything, but if an alliance hopes to command all or most of your business, there's a critical mass that depends in part on the size of the other alliances.

And talking about recruitment, if OW losses LA it will be the only airline alliance without S. American partner after long time being the only one that had partner. *A will have CM, AV, TA and ST will have AR. I hope they win this fight.

TPE <> BNE on BR & CI.

i think Oneworld have to look for AirAsia (based on Kuala Lumpur (KUL), it's affinate is AirAsiaX, which is a long-haul airline based on KUL), to fill up the gap in South East Asia.
As:
1.MH is not so interested in Oneworld, although CX has code-sharing with MH for HKG-KUL route.
2.If MH joins *A or Skyteam, AirAsia will be the ONLY choice left for Oneworld to fill up the gap in South East Asia.

As far as I know AirAsia doesn't have any premium cabin, lounge, or FF program. Coverage-wise it works, but I don't know how much their culture would match with OW.

MH is probabaly a lost cause.

How about PR? Bangkok Airways (PG)? Not ideal, but choices are dwindling.

I also think given Jetstar ownership, QF would be against.

But with further addition of codeshares for JQ flights out of SIN, Jetstar may add some options