Does Swissair's linking of it's mileage program to Jal signify the beginning of a move to incorporate Swissair into Oneworld?

Comments please?

cheers Peter

NO (at least not yet).

SR (for the time being) doesn't want to be in a direct INNER-ONEWORLD-COMPETITION with BA.

Hi again

It's been a while since this topic was visited.

Given the failure of the Qualiflyer Alliance what is the future for Swissair? Any thoughts Rudi?

cheers Peter

SR and Qualiflier partners don't look at their Alliance as a failure.

SR (the airline business part of the SR Holding) has to endure another major financial loss of Sabena and also of their 3 french allies (daughter companies).

And yes, SR is in talks with BA (and oneworld), but not exclusively. Their are actually other parrallel talks with Lufthansa too ...

Two weeks ago, all CEO's of all Qualiflier members met and gave Mr. Moritz Suter (founder of Crossair and, since late jan-2001, now CEO of the SR-airline-part) the 'power' to represent all (even TAP, etc) Qualiflier members in his talks with other Alliances.

Thanks Rudi

Personally I'd like to see Swissair join Continental's Onepass program or Klm/Northwest Worldperks as I could redeem my Swissair miles for an Asian flight.

Any chance of this happening?

cheers Peter

very, very unlikely.

The Sabena link 'speaks' against any KLM 'deal' (dutch KLM and belgian Sabena are 'biiter' local rivals).

And CO is probably out of question anywayM First bet would be Oneworld (with the existing AA link); second bet StarAllianc (under the strong leadeship of Lufthansa for such a 'deal' who might be the highest/strongest bidder ... and 'swiss' are very money-minded and Lufthansa could really use Sabena's strong African network).

Re your earlier comments regarding BA, Rudi.

This may yet make a Oneworld tie-up difficult.

I would have thought that SK***AM alliance would be actively searching for partners and that Swissair might have preferred to join a newer Alliance with fewer partners. I imagine that the Borg (oops I mean * Alliance) would already compete with Qualiflyer airlines on a number of routes (British Midland, Lufthansa, SAS, Austrian etc).

What ever the result what do you think will happen to existing Qualiflyer miles? Are they likely to be assimilated into another program or will Swissair keep its own program?

Thanks Peter



[This message has been edited by ffhound (edited 02-25-2001).]

You can count on one thing, and that is Qualiflyer will continue as a FFP if not an alliance.

Qualiflyer have cast-iron agreements, that mean that the Qualiflyer FFP cannot dissapear for many years.

Although, I do not give it much credence, it may be of interest to know that the Swissair/Sabena Sales Execuitves are already talking about OneWorld membership to corporate clients.


Nick

Well Merry

If there is one thing that we can be reasonably certain of, it is that once a new tie-up to another alliance is annouced there are bound to be some special promotions announced. Qualiflyer had a 5,000 mile bonus when Qantas partnered up with Qualiflyer so I expect something similar if they become part of Oneworld.

Here's hoping

cheers Peter

Can't see SR joining the Sk*Team. DL / SR / SN / OS had a good partnership with "Atlantic Excellence." However, when DL started looking toward AF, it broke down. SR made it very clear that it did not want to be allies with AF.

I agree with Rudi - I would think it would be very likely that SR join oneworld with SN. Don't think a LH link is too likely. The European Commission would probably not look too fondly at having 8 European airlines (SR, SN, LH, OS, Lauda, Tyrolean, BD and SAS) all in one alliance.

Add TAP, LOT, Air Liberte, AOM, Air Europa, Porutgalia and others to the list of airlines that would have to join star if SR did, making it even more unlikely.

This is a good thread - what is missing is that this morning in the WSJ Europe, Swissair was quite prominent on page 4. Oneworld may well not happen - espaecaily as it would mean BA having to give up slots at heathrow - something that will never happen. Personally I would like to see Swissair join *A. Whilst there would probably need to be some trimming of services on the part of LH and Swiss air between zurich/geneva and Munchen/Frankfurt - it would not be all that drastic. Also given LH's ability to gain immunity from europe for its 3 way LH-BD-SK deal a 4th that is shown to improve competition at LHR could be a good thing - just think a BD/Swiss code share. Anything that threatens BA's dominence at LHR can only be a good thing - especially as it looks as though T5 will go ahead, along with a ban on night flights.

Jongar: It is not ture that BA would have to give up slots a LHR.

BA currently only offer a limited service from LHR to Swiss destinations. BA could simply pull out of the Swiss market and use the slots for other destinations.

And as BA has the most competitive home market in the world, I don't see why having their "dominance" threatend is a good thing.

Remember that LH runs more flights and a much higher percentage of traffic from FRA than BA does from LHR - does that "dominance" need to be threatend?

What difference does T5 and night flights have to do with it?


Nick

You only have to look at fares out of LHR to see that it isnt competitive, and these days with the uk goverment in the frame of mind it has - BA would have to give up slots to break wind. Steven Buyers would love to have a pop at BA. BA will be the princible benefactor of t5 - it means more passengers with less compertitors

Fares out of Heathrow are expensive because the airport is successful. BA has played a large part of that success.

I don't know why you think Steven Byers is anti-BA. He seems to have been very even-handed with any allocations which have happend.

Why does T5 mean less competitors? BAA have said the opposite. BA is reducing the number of passengers it carries when T5 comes on-line, and other carriers are increasing capacity and flights.

Nick