Hello,

In an article I wrote for http://wereldverkenning.nl/ I spoke a source with Oneworld that confirms that Swiss is nearly ready to enter the Oneworld alliance. Only BA is stalling the process out of fear for another bankruptcy. The text is in Dutch:
http://wereldverkenning.nl/modules.p...rder=0&thold=0

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Cheers,

Brenno.
http://wereldverkenning.nl

I have to truly admit that I would be much happier to see KLM join than this dog of an airline. And frankly, I really just don't understand why Oneworld needs another European carrier. Add an eastern european carrier like Malev if the need to "expand" european coverage is that crucial. BA has reason to be worried and I hope they continue to block swiss.

I would like to see Lan Chile continue to expand all over the Carribean and South America, I would like to see a middle eastern airline considered like Qatar or Gulf Air, I would like to see JAL join eventually, and I would like to see another African carrier. Unfortunately, I can't see SAA ever joining unless they pay BA a bucketload of cash. At least KLM and Swiss are not in direct competition, but SAA is in direct competition with most of Comair's routes.

Complements of Dow Jones:
"In the first half of 2003, Swiss burned up CHF445 million in cash, leaving its liquidity base at CHF811 million, down from CHF1.25 billion at the end of 2002"

"Swiss International Air Lines is undertaking a major overhaul that includes 3000 job cuts and the grounding of more than 30 airplanes. The revamp is aimed at turning the company around. Swiss posted a first-half net loss of CHF333 million."

I know that a lot of people on this board want Swiss to join because they like the airline's comfort and service, but I see nothing positive coming out of their joining.

[This message has been edited by Darren (edited 08-24-2003).]

Wow! Can you tell me (perhaps off-list) why you dislike them so much? The reason why another carrier has to do with size. In Europe: Skyteam grows big: AF, AZ, CZ (and later most likely KL), Star (AUA, LH, SAS, Lauda Air) and Oneworld is pretty much alone (Finnair and Iberia - only small players). Adding new partners makes them more interesting. I fully agree on the Eastern European partner....

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Cheers,

Brenno.
http://wereldverkenning.nl

Some has to do with Swiss in particular and some doesn't. First, I just don't think Oneworld needs Swiss to be successful. A vast majority of their routes are redundant routes and there is a gaping hole that Swiss just isn't going to fill. Without getting into the semantics of where Europe begins and ends, you have four Oneworld airlines in Europe. British Airways, Aer Lingus, Finnair, and Iberia. To put it into perspective, Oneworld has the same number of airlines covering Europe than it has covering the rest of the world. Oneworld missed the boat with LOT and the airline would have begun to plug the Eastern European hole. Most of Eastern Europe is going to be admitted in about 10 months to the European Union and the rest will be admitted a year later. This is a big deal and will increase traffic exponentially. For Oneworld not to take advantage of this is sad. Finnair can cover the baltics and some of the north continent, but Oneworld is empty in the mid and south continent.

Second, Swiss screwed up. What they did with Sabena, et al. was incredibly risky and they got burned so hard that the airline doesn't even exist anymore. The airline is fiscally fragile at this point and maybe a month ago cut lots of jobs and lots of routes and the company said that without financing that the company would go under....again. People began to seriously doubt the value of the Star Alliance when Ansett went under. Doubts came up again when UAL declared BK. Announcements like this are not good for an alliance and Swiss could potentially do more damage than it is worth. Airlines have been openly investing in each other to spread the risk and to keep the markets alive, but I have never heard of any airline being willing to float Swiss any capital. Makes you wonder why.

Finally, I believe that Swiss made their bed and should lie in it. I am not as forgiving as some and regard the company as extraordinarily arrogant for just believing that the world should forget so easily. For some reason, many regard the company as beyond reproach but I disagree. I feel that the weaknesses of the company (and any company for that matter) should be fully considered before making any sort of major financial decision like this.

And for what it's worth, I have had this opinion for a very long time.

One good feature of Swiss: They offer three-cabin service, with a nice F cabin to boot. Not so for KLM, among others. At present the Oneworld three-cabin options from US to Europe are quite limited -- IB hardly counts; AA and BA members don't earn miles on each others' flights; AA's transatlantic gateways are pretty limited. So, for me, the addition of Swiss would be quite handy.

Yeah I agree on that one. That was also one of the worries of BA. I'd welcome Swiss as well. I also agree that Swissair was extremely arrogant, but Swiss might be a bit better.

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Cheers,

Brenno.
http://wereldverkenning.nl

BA wants to take their partnership beyond the same alliance.

Article: http://news.independent.co.uk/busine...p?story=436660

Anyone who has rosy visions of Swiss (SR or LX) service, flew them more than 5 years ago. No one who has flown them regularly since 1997 or so would agree with the above statement. As for 3 cabin service, whatever alliance they join, or whoever they partnership with aside, LX will have so few long haul routes that it will not matter, when the fact that many of their MD-11's which are the worst a/c in the sky (especially in LX biz config) are still in service and that they will most probably NOT be getting the A-340's anytime soon (yeah, thay have one so far), it is not an advantage.

Had an interesting conversation with someone from BA recently regarding Swiss entry into oneworld. Evidently, the deal is dependent upon a large sum of cash to be delivered by Swiss to the alliance.

BA rep told me that they'll believe it when they actually see the cash. Evidently, no one at BA is just yet willing to bet the house on this.

Amazing if that is true. Why didn't they arrange that fully the moment the cut the deal. I wonder what happens now. I'm really awaiting Swiss's entry into Oneworld. Makes my gold status with BA somewhat more valuable.

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Cheers,

Brenno.
http://wereldverkenning.nl

So I guess I won't be able to count on the Swiss flights for my RTW OWE ticket, huh?

Alex

Depends on the timing I guess ....

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Cheers,

Brenno.
http://wereldverkenning.nl

As has been noted if you begin your OWE before the rules are changed to include Swiss, you won't be able to use them.

I am in the CX Pier lounge of HKG.
I noticed flight information displays in the lounge show LX flights such as LX136 to MNL.

When LX entered the alliance, I think that it was easy to change some of the products very fast (such as lounge access and miles), but it will probably take more time to adjust products like the OWE or GlobEx tickets.