VS to join Star?
#1
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Join Date: Jun 2011
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VS to join Star?
VS (Virgin Atlantic) has a couple of Star partners including BMI, Continental, Singapore Air, south African Airways, ANA and Air New Zeland. Singapore Airlines actualy owns 49% of VS. What is the likelihood VS would formally join Star?
#2
Suspended
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Er, about none. The bearded jumper (Branson) has shown no inclination to join *A or any alliance before despite wooing, so I wouldn't hold your breath. The fact that VS has partnerships with SAA, ANA etc has nothing to do with much of anything.
#3
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: NZ
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VS has engaged in talks about joining *A some years ago. I understand UA made it very clear that it would veto it (presumably out of fears that VS would cannibalise UA's premium business between the US and London).
It would only be in VS's interests to join *A now and it has shown recent interest in doing so. It simply suffers from not being able to take advantage of much transit traffic at its hub at LHR as a result. Of course VS now codeshares with UA because UA inherited the CO codeshares, so who knows what the UA view of it is now?
It would only be in VS's interests to join *A now and it has shown recent interest in doing so. It simply suffers from not being able to take advantage of much transit traffic at its hub at LHR as a result. Of course VS now codeshares with UA because UA inherited the CO codeshares, so who knows what the UA view of it is now?
#4
Join Date: May 2010
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According to this report, it looks like VS might be close to joing Star.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonbrune...chard-branson/
Virgin founder Richard Branson tells Forbes. There is likely to be an announcement of an alliance coming very soon
Branson declined to say which alliance Virgin would join, but it is unlikely to be OneWorld, the group that includes Virgin arch-competitor British Airways. That leaves Star Alliance, anchored by United Continental Holdings and Lufthansa, or SkyTeam, anchored by Delta Air Lines and Air France-KLM, as possibilities. Of those two, Virgin Atlantics operations are more closely aligned with Star Alliance: the airline is 49% owned by Star Alliance carrier Singapore Airlines, has expressed interest in buying BMI from Lufthansa, and includes nine Star Alliance members among its partners.
#5
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Los Angeles, CA; Philadelphia, PA
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According to this report, it looks like VS might be close to joing Star.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonbrune...chard-branson/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonbrune...chard-branson/
LAX
#6
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#8
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Los Angeles, CA; Philadelphia, PA
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#9
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: New Zealand
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I have been told before that new members have to unanimously approved, if that is correct then any member can (in theory) veto a new member.
Of course you would have to be pretty brave as a minor player in the alliance to veto someone who the big boys all wanted on board.
#10
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#11
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I do see that VS could turn BD into a great feeder into their LHR operation. Would love to see a *A AMS-LON flight resume as well. It helped me out in irrops once before...
#12
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Sydney, Australia
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I once heard NZ announce themselves as the 6th Star on the alliance network. After all NZ is the longest standing member after the 5 founders. And NZ CEO Rob Fyfe is Star Alliance Chairman.
#13
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Last edited by mahasamatman; Sep 26, 2011 at 10:26 pm