It is being reported that oneworld will be naming a new member in the first half of 2008 - AA CFO Tom Horton mentioned this during a briefing.

Any guesses? Middle East and Africa are clearly underrepresented - Gulf Air? Or one of the Chinese carriers? Or indeed India which is growing fast and has some interesting candidates with Kingfisher and Jet?

Source: http://www.flightglobal.com/articles...ew-member.html

Mexicana? They already partner with AA, JL, IB, LA, CX, and QF. Not too exciting for a partner though.

That's interesting and encouraging news. It's pure speculation, but my money would be on Jet. They now codeshare with AA, and both BA and CX (now with increased frequency to India) could really use their domestic network feeds. But BA won't be a fan of the competition on the UK-India routes.

China is another obvious place to look. It's a muddy picture right now, but Cathay's play for China Eastern could result in them becoming a OW carrier. However, I don't see how this could happen in the first half of 2008; China Eastern hasn't even been sold yet.

It's too bad that OW has RJ instead of Turkish, Gulf, Emirates, or Qatar. But that's what we have, and I don't think they would add another carrier to OW from this region. I note that El Al has just started codesharing with AA, but I would be surprised if they joined any alliance.

OW has poor coverage in Africa, but is there an available carrier that could meet the OW requirements and provide reasonable benefit for the other OW carriers?

Mexicana does partner with many OW carriers, but with AA and IB (at least for now) in OW, their route network wouldn't seem to be very attractive.

IMHO, besides Jet, another reasonable possibility is Brussels Airlines. They offer flights to about 14 destinations in Africa and fill the void that OW has in the center of Europe.

Would that work in OW if they didn't return to Economy vs Business rather than their confounding current B.light and B.flex junk?

This may be a bit of a stretch, but lets not forget that Qantas has a significant minority ownership in Air Pacific, it would provide a marginal improvement within the South West Pacific without transiting AKL or SYD

I can see why Mexicana would not be a super attractive addition for most, but for me it would add some excellent new MR possibilities in NA.

Ethiopian?

The airline would be the best candidate, and the African network is appalling to be honest. They don't need to be up to standards now - look at how far RJ came from the initial announcement to when they came into the alliance. A massive improvement! (and despite what the naysayers say, the lie flat J seats in Crown Class are as comfortable as a bed!)

MIAT Mongolian Airlines anyone ?

Mahan Airlines of Iran ? Perhaps being put on the EU non-fly list is a bit of a temporary setback though ...

Horton said, "...We expect to announce at least one new member during the first half of 2008..." (Emphasis added.)

Jet would be good; AA has just had its codeshares approved. I'd be surprised if any middle eastern carrier would join (with the remotely possible exception of LY) otherwise RJ would likely pitch a fit. AA and LA probably wouldn't be that keen on MX coming in. ET would be good too. Of course I'd love AS to join, but it looks like they're kissing Skyteam at the moment.

It's fun to speculate.

While OW probably needs more depth in Africa, surely India would be a much better proposition for OW with 9W. After all many OW members fly into India so a domestic partner will help the alliance. It certainly has a young fleet and will come with a lot less baggage than say Air India when it goes to star.

The big drawback of 9W could be the rumours, if they are proved correct, about certain shady characters involved in its ownership.

Having just looked at getting to ADD from the UK I would certainly welcome a better coverage in Africa - Ethiopian would obviously do (although probably not in time for my trip), Brussels Airlines would be a nice addition with 15 African destnations but wouldn't actually solve my problem - but then I'm sure they don't choose members because of my travel plans

India and China are clearly the large growth markets, and Jet Seems the obvious candidate.

Mexicana is an obvious one too, and the previous CAO Emilio Romana is on record as saying he didn't want to join an alliance immediately after leaving Star, but did he favour oneworld. However, there is a new CEO, and oneworld is pretty strong in the Americas.

It looks like the announcement for a new member is going to be made in Los Angeles on the 9 April, according to this Runway Girl blog. But she doesn't know either who it would be.

I would say the rumours are just that.

IIRC 9W had a longer than normal waiting period as the Indian government and then the US govt agenecies went thru their background checks about this airline incl. ownership issues before allowing 9W to begin services to the US. Also there was a legal issue that I believe was settled before 9W got the go ahead for the US flights.

If the govt's in their infinite wisdom have decided that 9W is clean then who are we as mere citizen's to question the unfailing wisdom of our elected leaders and their civil servants.

Very interesting.... I think it may come from India. It�s a good thing to expand as long as it�s a decent airline we don�t want to become like ST