How so? If it were to happen, it would be either AA or BA sponsoring them into the alliance. I don't think it is as likely as it could have been as they swapped Australian partners from QF to DJ/VA.

It is obvious that OW will invite EY, but the question is whether EY will choose to join OW or not.EY, unlike EK, claim to be looking to join an alliance, and that it would probably either be OW or *A. It has partner airberlin in OW, and Virgin Australia, opposed to both BA and QF and allied with SQ, a *A member. It does have other partnerships with OW members and *A members, but most of those are less important.
I really don't know which one it will join, but seeing its large stake in airberlin, it seems a bit towards the OW side, but things can change.

Sure, but all of us taking a shower in BA LHR T5 F Lounge has heard worse sucking sounds, for years. Maybe that's BD beeing sucked into IAG?
;)

:D

Thought I might mention that, at the NATAS fair (largest travel show in SIN), QF didn't bother with their share of the stall, handing it all to BA. Jetstar also made a presence (with a few of the "business" class seats which looked downright horrible at their stall). It looks like QF is all but exiting the Asia region, if you ask me. :eek:

Can't see a budget airline being based in countries with such high labour/operating costs.

Like say Australia

Probably would try to wrangle an arrangement using lower cost Eatern European (there are some left) labour!:eek:

Like Ryanair eh?

Well I had to model my answer after a factual airline.;)
Pilots of course will come from low houred pilots with shiny jet syndrome that will be a pilot on a graduates starting wage just to fly in the silver jets.:p

As 123dd stated, agreements signed before an airline jojns an alliance do not suddenly disappear. There are many many examples of this. SKymiles flyers could redeem award on SQ even after SQ decided to join *Alliance. Delta flyers can still redeem their miles on Jet and Kingfisher.

MH seems to be going the other direction though, with their agreements with other airlines like Virgin Australia disappearing even before being admitted to the alliance.

Which agreements? I doubt they are dropping all agreements with non oneworld members, just those that would conflict with another oneworld member (such as NH vs JL and DJ/VA vs QF).

With QF being MH's sponsor, this should come quickly.

From a Star Alliance customer perspective, One World does seem to have lost their competitive advantage - there are just so many more partners in Star.

From a leisure traveller perspective, there is little incentive to want to switch or ride One World metal when Star will take you there, and get points.

Perhaps if I was in SYD or HKG or LHR, and One World was my only choice, then it would make more sense to be a part of their program, but it seems that the amount of metal available from Vancouver doesn't really suit my needs.

I don't think CX is going to leave oneworld. CX is very committed to the alliance. Maybe because it doesn't make sense to ditch something they helped to create!

Agreed. Although the Air China joint ownership thing certainly makes things interesting, the only way I could see CX leaving oneworld is if the alliance was on the verge of collapse (which it is not).

oneworld always suffered from less partners.
Would they had was general strength of quality airlines with good lounges

OW 2 Thumbs down!

The span in quality is higher in *A than in OW, IMO

I would agree with this now but not 10 years ago.
*A is becoming the alliance, if not already is. Of course it helps when you have hundereds of airlines:p Yes that is an exageration but I remember some *A liveries where the fuselage was painted in colours of member airlines....an A340-600 would struggle to have this scheme now.

*A has too many members that they can't work well together. It might as well be UA, LH and SQ while the other airlines do what they're told.

I agree

Considering AB joined today, OW now have more game in Germany and the rest of Europe! Anyone know if there is any form of link now between OW and EY?

What are the chances of CA joining oneworld? It does not seem that they are heavily in a partnership with any of the Star Alliance , and where they are they can be easily replaced. In fact their most extensive partnership is with CX and KA, both oneworld members.

- Replace NH with JL on Japan-China flights
- QF can replace MU with CA on Australian flights - Qantas can fly to Shanghai, and Air China for Beijing flights. QF and CA codeshared on the PEK-SYD route at one stage.
- Partner with AA on the US flights.

Whereas CX on the other hand, has a huge rival in * in SQ. Plus it codeshares heavily with AA even to South America, BA in inter-Europe, JL on flights to Japan amongst others.

I think we might see HU/HX join oneworld (providing a mini HKG base to star), and CA come to oneworld longer term. To me it seems logical, feel free to disagree.

AF/KLM is talking to AirBerlin about a "strategic partnership". So much for joining OW!

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-0...land-says.html

http://www.telegraaf.nl/dft/nieuws_d..._France__.html

"Airberlin has accepted the invitation of Air France KLM to talk about a strategic cooperation."

Not yet. EY and AA seem to expand exchange programs, sure hope this could evolve to EY joining OW.

:)

Air China seems pretty happy in *, slowly growing into a bigger and bigger role in the alliance. The scenario you laid out does make sense should they defect, although the second point is kind of moot from air china's point of view (also I'm assuming you meant Hainan joins *A, not oneworld). Alot of this Air China/Cathay defecting talk depends heavily upon who is percieved to be calling the shots. I would put my money on the Chinese government as opposed to swire pacific. Also, I could see Cathay defecting to *A if oneworld was collapsing and Singapore airlines decided to leave. Cathay could codeshare with united/avianca/taca/copa for south america, ANA replaces JAL and lufthansa and friends provide a number of different bases in europe to work from.

I have a friend who has bounced around in executive positions in airlines around Asia for the past 20 years that routinely fills me in on head office gossip. I trust his opinions because his network includes decision makers at all of the airlines being discussed here.

Cutting to the chase, he recently told me that QF's recent attempt to partner with HNA really pissed off CX. In spite of the fact that his current employer is a member of one of the alliances that has solid intra-China connectivity, he fully respects CX's desire to be OW's link to China.

Separately, I've been working on a project with HNA for the past year, and have learned a lot about the company in the process. Those guys have a ton of money, and seem quite happy doing things their own way... almost cowboy style (e.g. buy a hotel in some far flung city, start flying there, and hope for the best). While kissing up to CX isn't beyond the realm of possibility, this idea doesn't gel with what I understand about their corporate culture; e.g. they are immensely proud of their new HKG-LHR flight.

Die?!? OW had TWO new members join it these past week or so, cos in addition to AB...

http://www.businesstraveller.com/new...s-affiliate-me

;) :D

If you want to talk affiliate members, you can throw in NIKI as well.

Here's to a crazy idea, but since QF doesn't get on with CX, and now doesn't get on with MH either, perhaps QF should leave OW, and join ST. Virgin is somewhat aligned with *A, and with SQ obviously being in *A, that's not really an option.

But if QF does join ST, they would have instantly created a network in China, via MU in Shanghai, and to a lesser degree CZ which flies to major AU cities already. The link to Japan is lost, but with non-stop flights from eastern AU to the US, I don't see it as a big loss. However, they gain VN's network, and further collaboration in that area would also help with Jetstar's somewhat haphazard relationship in that country. And then, there's Garuda... but I can't see them being too happy about letting QF in. :)

QF also already codeshare with AF to France, and its frequent flyer program also earns points on AZ. But apart from this, the network does have a pretty big hole in Europe. Having said that though, given QF's recent strategic shift in focusing in Asia and regional flights rather than the ultra-long-haul segments to Europe, moving to ST actually sounds like a good strategic fit.

EDIT: Adding to the above, I've just been made aware that Jetstar Hong Kong is launching as a joint venture with MU. As silly and embarrassing it is for a OW founding member to defect, it does sound like it might just work out... (although I might not say the same after I recover from my red-eye flight).

Just read the same thing. Cathay can't be happy about this.

CX should just partner up with Virgin Australia to piss QF off.

Actually ex-Taiwan one can choose intra-AU add-on on either QF or DJ when buying a CX TKT. I believe that it would be the case for ex-HKG as well.

Yeah, THREE new then, and MH warming up before autumn entrance...

Did I hear EY???:confused:

:cool:

EY joining OW would be AWESOME.

Shocked that Kingfisher hasn't gone down the drain yet... In fact, they are still listed as a future member of oneworld!

Probably just keeping them there in the unlikely event they survive.

you guys have piled on an astounding quantity of death wishes for Kingfisher the past months. You know, maybe you've just given them additional support and help them actually slowly come over their predicament :cool:
So, next time you really really wish them down the drain, try a different tactic, shower them with abundant praise! :D

Kingfisher is the best airline ever!

How could anybody think that Kingfisher is going bankrupt! They will be here forever, the most profitable company in the world!