China airlines and Eva Air
 

i just noticed that DL has a FFP with China airlines and CO has one with Eva. Now if both want to join Scary Team then who will get priority?

I assume it's first come first serve. Each would have sponsering airlines. Wonder what the overlap in coverage would be. Could get to Australia via TPE.

China Airlines (CI) announced its intention to join in Skyteam but I think that's a long way to go. In addtion to DL, it also has codeshare with AZ,KE, and CZ. On the other hand, EVA doesn't want to take sides.

Personally I think the chance of ANY Taiwanese carrier to join any alliance is pretty small. It's all about politics.. And since the Chinese market/carriers are more important than any single Taiwanese carrier, none of the alliances would dare to get any Taiwanese carrier to join them.

I agree with bchl. China Airlines and Eva have very slim chance to join any alliances soon. On the contrary Chinese carriers may have higher chance to join either *A or 1W or Skyteam. No alliance wants to give up huge Chinese market. :(

Not everything is about politics
 

As a Taiwanese, I have to clarify this. While China and Taiwan might have a lot of confilcts, they do work together in business. There are more than 3 million Taiwanese working in mainland China.And, airlines of both sides have numerous cooperations including FFP. I have never heard that Chinese goverment doesn't like Taiwanese airlines to join the global alliances. After all, it's not like UN or ASEAN where the member has to be a country. On the contrary, it encourages closer ecnomic ties so as to facilitate the "unification."

I was actually wondering if China airlines would get preference since its sponsoring member is Delta a founding member.

I didn't hear that CI is planning on joining ST. I think CI is more "international" and open to these things than BR.

I think the Taiwanese tend to do business their own way and don't like to be part of any of these things. In fact, Evergreen got to be one of the largest container shipping company in the world without being part of this "Conference" (I think it is sort of an alliance for shipping companies). So, YF Chang was really against frequent flyer programs and any of these global alliances that add to cost without benefits, in his opinion. I guess if he could fill the planes and command higher fares than CI, he did not see the need to make alliances.

When BR announced a frequent flyer agreement with CO, it actually surprised a lot of people. BR also codeshares with AA. I think CI joining ST could push BR into something.

If BR is to join any, my bet is Star. Its logo is sort of a star :-) and it has close ties with NH. I think CX will really not want BR to join Oneworld.

I was reading somewhere their website about DL is rumor with AV want join the Skyteam alliances and here it is:

Avianca Airlines- has been rumored that it is in negotiations with Delta Airlines to join the alliance by 2007 or 2008

It would be join the alliance by either 2007 or 2008. That is in negotiations with DL. Does DL & AV will negotiations to join the alliances.

I don't think politics counts too much here! The thinking of Chinese authority is trying to tie up closely with Taiwanese entities. They had already allowed CI airplanes to land there. So why should they care about CI joining any group? Each group want to cover as many destinations as possible.

(1) As mentioned, CI has already had relationship with DL, AZ, KE. Just last month, Taiwanese newspaper said that CI were establishing cargo tie with China Southern, in addition to their mutual passenger relationship. This is a strong indication that CI will ultimately join Skyteam.
(2) EVA had long relationship with CO. But later, they established another relationship with AA. So my quess is that they will probably go with Oneworld, along with China Eastern.

(3) By the end of this year, Chinese tourists (1500 per day) will pour into Taiwan. The direct links between Taiwan and China probably will come true within one or two years. After that, Taiwan will establish many direct routes into various part of China, probably more substantial than Korea or Japan ever have. At that time, many money will come out of Cathy Pacific, because then Taiwan-China travel does not need to go through Hong Kong, not to mention Korea ,Macao or Japan. I am sure that this is Cathy's biggest and inevitable nightmare!