Who is joining?
 

Does anyone have a good list of the airlines that are currently in negotiations / serious about joining SkyTeam?

From scanning the threads, and Google, the following are definite:

Aeroflot
China Southern

Are there any other airlines in the process of joining SkyTeam?

plus 4 airlines to join in 2006 as associates: COPA, Tarom, Air Europa and Kenya Airways

plus Malaysia airlines, always rumoured to be in negotiations

There are lots of threads about it on this forum actually

Who I'd like to see
 

I'd vote for Copa and Malayasian in a second. :)

Well, you are getting half your wish with COPA. Although EUA would be nice (although I have to admit that I suspect I won't be getting to South America anytime soon).

I'd really really really love to see MH in Skyteam. Skyteam needs more than one option Europe-Asia, and, well, MH just rocks. I've tried to figure out how I could just move into the First Class lounge at KUL. :)

Steve

Jet Airways (9W) would be an awesome addition. I hear *A is courting 9W.

Malaysian sure would be nice...

I'm flying to KUL to visit family in November. Wouldn't have minded EQMs on Northwest (for the wife) and lounge access in KUL (I should be plat on Northwest by then)

Malev is a potential future candidate, I reckon.

Malev is currently in the process of joining Oneworld I believe.

I would personally love to see China Airlines come in, as my flying involves Taiwan and CI gives good options for flying into / out of TPE. They already do a bit of codesharing with KE, DL, etc. but their TPE -> HKG and BKK as well as BKK -> AMS don't currently codeshare with any members. Their customer service is excellent. They can be used for legs in a Delta RTW fare, but if you connect to another airline (such as KLM), they currently cannot check you in for those legs at TPE.

TPE BKK AMS is code shared with AZ not sure about TPE BKK FCO

I really wish some more European airlines that focus on eastern/southern Europe market would join. My only options to go visit family at this time are Alitalia or CSA with bad connection options.

Aeroflot FF program's website claims that Aeroflot will be joining SkyTeam in March 2006.

Air France & KLM are in already remember - thats 4 European airlines - should cover a great many destinations!

One addition could be Virgin. There are 3 major UK airlines (excluding no-frills carriers) - BA are OW, BMI are *A and the 3rd, Virgin, has a few point sharing schemes but is not in any alliance!! I am sure they lose revenue as a result of this!!

You are right -- I think AF finally started fiying its own metal into Belgrade. Alitalia does too, but I hate the MXP airport, plus the ATL-MXP route is about an hour longer than ATL-CDG or ATL-AMS. KLM does not fly its metal to BEG as far as I know.

Virgin joining ST would be sweet. ^

I get the idea that richard branson flys on his own baloon. I'd be suprised if he joined up with any alliance, having said that, Virgin's partners do look to be skyteam biased. The Virgin FF program seems difficult to adapt to skyteam though... who knows? I'd love to see Virgin join, and take a ride on the "Upper class suite", and hang out at the bar :)

Not a hope in hell. Besides, VS partners are not especially ST-oriented. Their closest partner is SQ (who has a minority share in VS) and, UK-wise, they also have connections with BD. If VS were to join an alliance, it would be *A. But they won't join any alliance any time soon.

This seems strange business logic to me as I am sure that they must lose a fair amount of revenue from not being in a decent Alliance. I appreciate that many people are loyal to Virgin as they feel the service is superior to BA et al, and I also appreciate that ST are generally lower standard airlines than Virgin, but does this compensate for the loss of revenue of not being in an alliance??

Not necessarily. It is far from clear that airlines with a limited network necessarily fare better in an alliance than outside it. For some, a series of multiple ad hoc bilateral partnerships/codeshares with carriers in different alliances can make more sense. AS follows a similar strategy, with partnerships with both OW and ST airlines.

Well, I agree it's not going to happen, but as far as partners, Virgin partners with both Continental and Delta, who are both rather large members of skyteam, Virgin also partners wtih Malaysia... If Malaysia Airlines joins Skyteam, there may be more of a precedent. I just don't see Virgin joining any alliance because they are too unique, but if they did I guess my money would be on Skyteam.

With SQ, a *A airline, having a 49% share of VS? Don't think so. *A or nothing.

Swiss will join the SkyTeam
 

rumors in the local press say that swiss doesn't want to be part of lufthansa, wants to join sky team instead. can anyone confirm?

Please cite the local press you are referring to. I see no possibility. LH has already bought Swiss so what are you talking about?

Not that it's going to rock the airline world or anything; I was on a KLM codeshare on Air Portugalia last month and the inflight magazine stated how they hoped to join skyteam. Now if they'd only do it before January so I can get miles.....