Also KOA.

Didn't I hear that JL is dumping these routes?

I think only from FUK.....

Japanese media are reporting JL will join within one year (Asahi Shimbun newspaper, Kyodo news agency), in 2006 (Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper) and next fiscal year (which for JL is through March 2007) (Tokyo Shimbun newspaper).

Speculation is that JL may be considering cutting back its international operations after joining oneworld, though JL denied this at a news conference Oct. 25.

JL is pulling out of Saipan or may have already been done, and has 'indifinitely' suspended NGO (Nagoya)-Guam.

it seems now that the alliance is finally moving after seeing a lot of announcements especially from *A. Not many good carriers remaining now, however and just for my own convenience I would like to see joining SN Brussels in Europe and MH in Asia, the latter I reckon would be difficult to stray away from AF-led CrapTeam
And please CX, do something with KA @:-)

After all the anticipation of Swiss joining a couple of years ago, I suppose it's best to temper one's excitement until the final papers are signed.

Doesn't sound good business for other OW members to have more European carriers. BA, IB, AY, EI and future MA and RJ (ok, latter is not quite European) are more than enough. OW is in need of one or two African, one Pacific, one Indian and prehaps Chinese, Brazillian and Canadian airliner.

... and as these talks have gone with some other airlines before, it may as well be that the regulators once again take the coming *A complaints seriously and require either JAL or BA to give up some of their Heathrow landing slots. This might be once again the bottleneck for an airline to join OW.

/hv

JL has only two flights per day to/from LHR. Not sure if this could be a problem.

CX flies three (and increasing to four) to LHR from HKG...

From LHR, JAL has 2/day to Tokyo + 1 to Osaka. BA has 2/day to Tokyo. Why could this be a problem?

Nippon_UK

SN Brussels is a special case. The Privilege FF programme has already been linked with AA, AY, BA and IB programmes. SN codeshares with these airlines and MA as well. OW companies would probably have nothing against SN joining. The problem is that SN has so many other partners so it might choose not to join.

Star Alliance is bound to file a complaint to the EU competition authorities that JAL+BA would have too significant a share of LHR-NRT traffic. This happens every time anyone wants to join Oneworld. Then the competition authorities will rule that this is, indeed, the case and they'll demand that current Oneworld + JAL must give up landing slots at Heathrow to *A.

This is the point discussions can end. If neither BA nor the joining airline is willing to give up any LHR slots, that's it then. With JAL I'm a bit more optimistic as it must have several profitable long-haul routes and it's not that dependent on NRT-LHR traffic. Also, they're probably already analysed the threat and might have something in their sleeve to get rid of this requirement if it happens.

We'll see how it turns out. It would be nice to have JAL onboard, it would give much more freedom for us xONEx:ers in Asia.

/hv

If that was the case, why isn't *alliance raising a fuss about HKG-LHR? CX will be 4 daily. BA has 3 daily flights. QF will be going 4 weekly. Clearly, oneworld is the dominant alliance on this route.

You can do that route now on AA connecting in DFW or JFK. Even with the JL flight you still have 2 hours on the ground and you have to go through customs at JFK. You have an identical layover in DFW (actually only 5 minutes longer). No advantage with JAL on this route IMHO.

I am very surprised that QF has not sponsored FJ's entry into OW, particularly as they use QFs and AAs frequent flyer programmes as they don't have one themselves. FJ would make a very useful addition to OW.

I believe that everyone has picked out the Indian carrier, but are there any decent carriers left in Africa now that Kenyan is going Scaryteam and South Afrian is going *A?

Finally, with LAN taking over South America, is there really any need for another South American carrier at this stage? Central America maybe a better option, although the decent one in that area is like to go Scary too.