New Oneworld recruits
 

The Oneworld board meeting is currently underway in Los Angeles. Yesterday it was announced that Mexicana will join the alliance. Are there any chances more airlines will be announced before the end of the meeting? My bets are that Oneworld will offer Jet Airways, S7 and Hainan Airlines (Great Wall) a seat at the table before the end of the year. What about Air Pacific as a Qantas affiliate?

Alaska Airlines
1 Fills in the void left by Canadian Airlines with more direct flights to Canada from the West Coast
2 Partners with AA, BA, CX, and QF


Vietnam Airlines
1 OW's answer to SE Asia
2 Partners with AA, JL, CX, QF


China Eastern
1 OW's answer to China
2 Partners with AA, BA, JL, QF

I don't think 9W is interested in alliances, maybe after IT and AI join.

This plus 9W and life would be really good. :)

Still leaves a big hole in Africa which ET could fill, IMO.

I'd be in favor of letting SN join OneWorld. It would help cover the big hole in Africa.

could fill , but will they ?


http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/...fx4849114.html

Lufthansa, Ethiopian Airlines to enter code-sharing deal

Ok , I know a single codesharing deal does not necessarily mean anything , but since , AFAIK , ET only have two codesharing deals in place and they are both with *A carriers ( SA is the other one ) I dont necessarily see them rushing into OW any time soon

SN for Africa and connections to France would do nicely. And please throw in S7 for those Siberian cities as well, please.

Not that we get a vote, but mine would definitely go for any improvement in Africa coverage. I used to fly SN a lot, back and forth to Freetown and Monrovia mostly. Even better would be ET to eliminate the need for backtracking to Europe.

But it's all just wishful thinking, right?

***

Update: this is really funny. I just searched for the ET site to check their route map, and this is what you get as the "official site" --

http://www.flyethiopian.com

Actually this is their official site. The one you found appears to be an additional domain name that they registered in the 90's.

ET is more closely aligned with *A; you can earn miles on their flights with LH. Also their flights go more to *A hubs (IAD, FRA) than OW.

SN, SN, SN... Even more important than getting people around Africa right now for the alliance is getting people there first. And among the unallied, I don't think there's anyone better than SN right now. I was so gutted at the MX announcement as I had convinced myself that Brussels was going to be the next one in.

Not sure that 2 *A hubs are any more relevant than 2 OW hubs (LON & HKG) when talking about some 50 ET total destinations. (They also fly to CDG & FCO if Skyteam is your cup of tea.)

What are relevant are the great internal African connections and the links to non-African cities such as BKK, DXB, AUH, DEL, BOM, TLV, ARN & BRU as well as the various alliance hubs already mentioned.

In addition to their route network, their service quality is pretty good as well. Personal experience was fine on ABJ - LOS, with a bit of a delay, but normal for Africa. (My luggage was nicked in LOS, which is also normal for LOS, apparently. :mad:)

It's too bad about 9W. I think they'd fit in real well with Oneworld. All 3 alliances right now have gaps with south Asia travel, and 9W is poised really well to fill in those gaps. After all, India is one of the world's fastest aviation markets and an increasingly important business and tourist destination.

I figure that 9W may join one eventually. AI is joining Star and if IT goes the Skyteam route (since they already have some strong codeshare agreements), I think 9W may eventually go with oneworld. Though 9W's codeshare agreements confuse me in that regard, they do have them with both AA and QF. Who knows? It might be possible one day.

Considering JetStar's assault on SGN route, I cannot see QF being happy to further extend any cooperation with VN. Also QF has purchased a stake in VN's competitor further complicating any relationship.

Whilst CX has a good relationship with VN, my bet is that VN will go down the ST path rather than run into the arms of OW.

How about Malaysia Airlines? 5-star airline, Southeast Asia hub, connections to several OW hubs and focus cities (SYD, HKG, LHR, LAX, JFK, EZE), and they will add numerous destinations not covered by OW.

route map: http://www.malaysiaairlines.com/getd...Timetable.aspx

I thought MH was looking at ScaryTeam.....

Dave

MH - No chance imho -- BA, QF and CX would boycott due to more competition on the Kangaroo route

and JQ is already flying to KUL

AS is unlikely to join, since it has alliances with much of Skyteam, including AF*, KL*, DL*, CO, and NW* (asterisks indicate EQM partners). As far as OW goes, AS is already partnered with AA*, BA, LA*, QF, and CX. Most of the Mileage Plan members like it this way, since it allows us to collect miles from both OW and ST carriers, and it's a popular airline for people to use as a "second" account in the States because it can catch miles from a lot of different airlines.

Royal Air Maroc
 

What do you think of Royal Air Maroc? It cover quite well western Africa.

Vietnam Airlines
 

Remember that QF codeshares with VN between Melbourne/Sydney and Ho Chi Minh City

Query how long the VN codeshare will last given
1. JQi flies to SGN
2. QF's 18% interest in BL (soon to be Jetstar Pacific)

[QUOTE
Whilst CX has a good relationship with VN, my bet is that VN will go down the ST path rather than run into the arms of OW.[/QUOTE]

VN is indeed headed for SkyTeam. They are in the process of selecting a new resevation system from Amadeus, Sabre, or another vendor and SkyTeam compliance is a key evluation criteria.

JAL to Enhance Ties with Vietnam Airlines
 

But JAL is desperately recruiting VN, I'm sure that has affected which alliance VN is joining.

Tokyo, Apr 14, 2008 (Jiji Press) - Japan Airlines <9205> is set to strengthen its ties with Vietnam Airlines as part of efforts to reinforce the Oneworld global airline network, which has no Southeast Asian member, Jiji Press learned Monday.....

http://www.japancorp.net/Article.Asp?Art_ID=17700

I still think that 9W has to be on the cards at some point. There really does need to be a strong presence in India given the rate at which air travel is growing over there.

FD

At some point for sure, but AY, BA and CX (not sure about AA and QF) are all providing connections to major Indian cities. Maybe some time is needed to check safety and other standards for Indian domestic flights.

Now, in Russia you have vast areas where no OW airline is flying at all. The only China - Russia OW connection for example is the CX codeshare flown on Aeroloft metal.

I'd put Russia first.

Interesting comment from the CX CEO Tony Tyler

"Being a founder member of the oneworld, are you looking at an Indian membership?
Cathay Pacific would welcome the membership of a oneworld partner in India. "

http://www.expresstravelworld.com/20...nworld05.shtml

--

Re VN.
BL is now known as Jetstar Pacific
http://www.jetstar.com/ve/index.html

9W: step in the wrong direction?
 

UA now announcing closer partnership with Jet Airways. Doesn't this usually signal an eventual move to *A? (TAM, Turkish, Swiss, South African, etc.)

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/080519/aqm516.html?.v=8

Maybe 9W wants to make airline pacts with as many airlines as possible before signing up for an alliance.

oneworld eyeing Indian carriers as partners
 

This might interest re. oneworld's Indian plans:

http://www.business-standard.com/com...N&autono=38948

9W (Jet) has also just announced a codeshare with EY (Ethiad)
So does appear they are just codesharing with everyone

source?

Did you think to try google before asking?

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&s...etihad&spell=1

Well BA and AA were talking with CO about a possible alliance. I wonder what happened to that story? Though it seems CO is also talking with UA to join *A...

This is what came of it.

I have to imagine that CO going to *A will make provide a mighty big argument for straightening out the BA/AA immunity question.

CO is also an important partner of AS, who has no *A partners, and if CO leaves AS will have more OW partners than Skyteam ones. Perhaps it's time for AA to start thinking about putting a little more pressure on AS.

However, the trend lines regarding OW's competitive position vis a vis *A look rather negative to me.

Mainly due to *A putting the emphasis on size wheres OW is focusing more on quality (so they say). But OW should now be a bit more aggressive to fill some gaps in North America, India and Africa. AS would be a fantastic addition to the family.

I think OW needs to expand. I would liked to have seen CO in OW, but I guess they brought more to Star than OW.

I think the following airlines are potential oneworld candidates;
- AS
- 9W
- GF (they have hinted theyd like to join an alliance, and wont overlap much with RJ)
- SN

I am sitll perplexed as to why Air China joined STAR, when they are 20% owned by CX. I'm not sure which Mainland Chinese airline would likely join OW...maybe MU?

I'm with you on all of those--the only thing about AS is their current MVP/MVPG levels (20K and 40K) and I could see their elites getting cranky about a new top level that would be necessary...

There's periodic talk amongst AS FFers that a platinum level would be a welcome change to the AS plan. MVPG upgrades on an increasing number of flights are become harder to score, partly due (IMO) to AS' favorable pricing of purchased F tickets on many of their routes, e.g. west coast N/S mainline.

AS' partner relationships with so many ST members (albeit decreasing in number with the NW/DL merger and CO's defection) would be the main sticking point. There are, of course, partnerships between current OW members and members of other alliances, like QF/AZ or CX/AF, even QF/SK, so possibly not insurmountable, at least on an interim basis.

I like AS, MU, AF.