FlyerTalk Forums - JAL and SkyTeam?

There was an interesting quote in an article in The Asahi Shimbun, a major Japanese daily, on its Dec. 4 morning edition. The article is about the imminent collapse of UA and its impact on airline alliances. The quote itself is undated but I would assume it's very recent. It's JAL chief Kaneko who was quoted.

Quote:

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">It is not happening anytime soon that (JAL) joins a specific airline alliance in the remote future, but if SkyTeam expands, it will be a strong airline alliance qualitatively. We may have to think about relationship with it.</font>

AF (and AA) officials were both quoted as saying effectively they would welcome JAL for SkyTeam (and oneworld) if it is willing to join either of them.