I think OW is trying out a different strategy; let the major carriers like AA, BA, CX, AY, JL, QF, and LA take care of the long hauls, while letting certain LCCs handle a specific regional area. This makes sense on how OW has approached with AB, how QF is gradually assimilating its LCC subsidiary JetStar & JetStar Asia into OW for it's weakness in SE Asia, and AA’s increased relationship with B6 and WS for more West Coast flights and intra-Canada.

Has OW stated that they are pursuing such a strategy? They haven't been shy about commenting on other aspects of their recruitment, like "quality over quantity". It's entirely possible that we can assign this in retrospect - I'd like to think that the management is not random, but...

Speaking of which, does SkyTeam have a stated recruitment strategy? OW is otherwise looking to carve out the high quality carriers, and *A is looking to be the biggest. ST is derided as the "leftover" alliance, but seriously, is there some semblance of a plan there?

Air Berlin which is joining OW next year is really struggling.
They just reported a nasty Q1 result with a loss of €120.6 million.
http://atwonline.com/airline-finance...&YM_RID=#email

And so is Kingfisher airlines. They owe Mumbai Airport 1.05 billion INR (about $24 million US). If they don't pay, then it is cash first, flight operations second.
http://www.rediff.com/business/repor...s/20110511.htm

AA lost more than that in Q1 - US$436m. They are much bigger, of course. With MX going under and JL teetering, it's not a rosy financial picture for OW.

The interesting state of Kingfisher is that the airport authority wants $$ before the planes can use the airport. Like those self-serve gas stations where you have to pay first, then pump gas.

Air Berlin could handle a lot of the OW feeder traffic in Europe. Let's see how far codeshares can and will be extened on those.