So, the Italians finally decided to hop in to bed with Air France. That's going to make for an interesting marriage!

Our own little alliance has been very devoid of news lately. All the rumours concerning Swissair seem to have dropped off (that said, the Swiss have their hands full right now). Anyone got any little pearls of wisdom concering potential new members? My slippers are sick of sitting under the same ol' aircraft seats! I need a change of scenery. How's about something new in Asia or the Middle East? Or are the two lead members simply too busy with securing their anti-trust agreement to be bothered expanding at this stage?

I'd really love to see expansion...

SR/SN and JL are my two most requested. It sure has been a long time...

OW is definitely losing ground relative to the other alliances. As much as I hate to say it, SkyTeam could surpass OW if this keeps up. Now that they have Alitalia, if they also picked up TG (as rumors often suggest), they would have excellent overall coverage, only lacking the South Pacific and South America.

The airlines that I'd like to see in OW, and I think are at least somewhat feasible are SR (which would probably also come with Sabena), and JL. They would be my first choices.

After them, I'd like to see something else in the middle east or SE Asia. CX is a great airline, but their network isn't large enough to really cover that entire region. I'm not sure if the current level of service on these carriers is high enough to make me want to fly them, but there are a fair number of respectable unaligned carriers out there that could be picked up. Turkish, Air India, and Malasian all come to mind. KUL would be a great place to have another hub -- flights from Europe to the South Pacific aren't any longer (mileage wise) than routing through BKK or SIN.

There has been all this talk about dissolving Qualiflyer and the main players coming to OW, but I'm not sure that will happen. Plus there's been talk about MH joining, but its been going on for quite some time without results.

I've also heard rumours El Al (LY) might want to join. They've got commerical agreements with both QF and AA and have a pretty big network in Europe, Asia, Africa and Nth America. Plus they're really good on security, even though not the greatest service.

According to some insiders oneworld has been courting JL from the beginning. Apparently a big stumbling block is the huge investment JL would have to make in updating their systems, which are said to be quite archaic. Personally I think there is a certain degree of Japanese business culture at work as well. The hint being that JL has publicly stated that it wishes to pursue marketing agreements with many carriers - i.e. too hard to make a decision so let's procrastinate and eventually the problem will go away. Just imho. At least they have not said that "it would be difficult", which for the Japanese usually translates into "ain't ever going to happen, so forget it!".

the same stumbling block has been said for a few other asian airlines: KA, those in China (MU/CA), etc

[This message has been edited by pegasus8228 (edited 08-06-2001).]

Think TAM would also be great OW partner and sure up the S. American connection, especially with inta-brasilian flights.

TAM - I just second the idea. A Great asset for OW

Look for USAirways to become part of the alliance soon, now that the United deal has gone South.

The most likely new candidates:

JAL - already closely linked
Swissair - once they sort out their finances and SN
Emirates - working closely with BA already
Dragonair - only regulatory problems stand in the way and will disappear with WTO.
US Air - doubt it. relationship with LH too good
who else?

TAM is working on a merger with VARIG. If that happens, TAM will be yet another Star Alliance member! It does seem as if Oneworld is a dying proposition.

If Swissair join, I sincerely hope they bring Sabena with them. Not too pushed to see Turkish join, but the more, the merrier.

South African was a loss when they jumped ship from AAdvantage, but given their ties with Swissair, maybe there's still some hope, assuming the Swiss don't sell their shareholding.

Malaysian would also be a welcome addition.

USAirways - unlikely, but if you peruse the USAirways board, it seems that OW is the alliance of choice for their customers. But since when did that matter....>

[This message has been edited by OWdevotee (edited 08-18-2001).]

[This message has been edited by OWdevotee (edited 08-18-2001).]

I also think US is a longshot...plus regulators might not be too excited about both US & AA being in the same intl alliance.

Swissair are probably the most serious contender - but where does that leave Qualiflyer ?

Maybe a total merger between OW & Qualiflyer with a new name ?? Who knows...

Swissair? With their current mess? I am not sure the alliance will seriously consider them until some of the financial problems with Sabena, and the other airlines they floated, are out of the way. I will put it this way: I hope not. I don't imagine that an alliance member going insolvent would be very positive toward the alliance's image.

South African would be a winner for OW as none of the other alliances have african members (so i think anyway). MH would also be good to beef up the asian region as CX is premium but small.

About europe, does OW really need that many new partners ? i suppose southern europe is not so covered, but central, northern & western is pretty ok now.



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