Again, why would CX want to leave Oneworld?

SQ/TG could block CX, or CX could figure why bother competing. I doubt CX is going anywhere.
Kingfisher, that was a serious Fu(*&^ck on whoever invited them. Any sort of due dilligance (or just reading flyertalk or airliners.net) would show they have some very serious financial issues. I think Jet would have been a much better choice, if not for the fact they seem to have a better network than IT.
MX, may she rest in peace, but not the biggest blow, same with MA.
AA and JL are on the track to getting their finances back in order.
QF I am a bit worried about, I think jetstar is taking over too much.
MH, great airline and it seems the Malaysian govt will dump money into them for a while.
Overall things at OW might not be perfect, but could be worse.
I will say though I wish we picked up China eastern. Yes their onboard product kind of sucks, but all chinese carriers are not much better.

What I've always wondered about is how QFFs can earn points on China Eastern, when MU is with SkyTeam. No SCs, but not a bad start, millsdale!

Eh, not exactly...
AY is looking for a partner to reach 2 goals; radically lower costs for its euro traffic and to increase presence in the nordics. One could argue that it is a downsizing, as some planes and crews may have to leave the legacy carrier, but the intended result is an increase of total amount of traffic under AY (and partner) control.

Finnish government have said that if their holdings (currently ≈56%) is blocking such a deal, they are willing to discuss a reduction, but they are determined to stay a major shareholder for the foreseeable future.

MU and QF worked together long before MU joined ST.... It was more Chinese politics than airline decision.. Maybe MU want to be in the same alliance as CZ to compete with CA ad its subsidiaries...

Or perhaps the CEO's personal preference...

Jetstar Scandinavia? :p

:D

Well, I hope not, but it is hard to completely discard the thought...
AY and BA already co-owns a "jetstar" called FlyBe, but from communications it seems that FlyBe is out of the question for this task.

So OW did not bribe the right Chinese official:D It is my understanding that all CZ, MU, and CA are for the most part state owned, so you are not really competeing against each other. I would see it better from the chinese government to have one in each alliance to balance it out and give each airline their own following. Now Skyteam partners will be splitting feed between CZ and MU when they could just be sending it CZ.

I feel that EY will be invited soon to join OW.

It is the obvious move of OW members to combat EK crazy expansion every where.

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.