I was at the airport earlier today picking up a ticket and started talking with the agent about *A and programs. He told me yesterday they got a memo asking them to remove the *A airline sign (the one that lists all the airlines) as there is a major shake-up coming.

Apparently 2 carriers are leaving the program but a couple of others will take their place. Unfortunately he wouldn't tell me which carriers were affected, only that an announcement should be made soon.

fyi, this was at a US counter.

Anyone heard anything about this?

CA & FM in, RG out

2 carriers leaving? I wonder who the second one is. BD? JK? US?

According to online news postings (search Google news), Air India and Turkish Airlines are joining the Star Alliance. Will be interesting to see who is out. These two don't seem to constitute a "major shake-up."

Too bad it's not CA and/or FM (from my perspective).

If anything, I don't think the informer knows too much about recent *A activity.

mahasamatman is dead-on. 2007 will bring in CA and FM. Those two are a lock for an early 2007 entry.

TK and AI have only said they want to join *. No formal announcements have been made by *A. Only TK has publicly stated they would like to join and is now beginning to integrated into *A. AI's still a big question mark - although I prefer they don't join.

As for members leaving, remember it costs upwards of US$50 million to leave *A, so I think it would be big news if something like that happened. I do see RG being relegated to a regional-type carrier or dropped altogether. The next airline I think that thought about leaving was OS, but I hear they freaked when they heard about the exit penalty.

Could you identify the source of this figure? Shouldn't the penalty depends on the revenue of the airlines? $50 mil could mean a lot to some and not so bad for some.

It was mentioned during the first QF-NZ merger attempt a few years back. I don't have the article on me, but Kiwi Flyer can vouch for its authenticity. IIRC, the $50 million penalty is for the full members, while regional members pay a fraction of that (I don't know the actual figure).

I think 50m is the right number (at least the figure quoted when NZ was seeking merger with QF as they had to factor that cost against the synergies). I'd have to hunt around, but won't have time right now (flight about to be called).

JK and BD is not leaving, both are owned(partly) by founders of *A. JK is booming in the domestic and european market and i belive part of the success is the entry to the alliance.

I could see Varig and Air New Zealand leaving the alliance.

As for joining there is a pressrelease on the star website welcoming Turkish in the alliance.

NZ can't be leaving Star. Evidence being they are seeking partnership with CA & FM.

There are still rumours about OS moving to Skyteam if they can find their way out of M&M, to a point it makes sense for them to operate more independently of LH and LX.

Shanghai Airlines are joining (Air India is expected to join later).

Varig is leaving (and MORE or less bankrupt)

Was the old list at that US Airways lounge correct (did they already list swiss and South African Airways)?

I didn't see the list that was there, or if I did see it before, I don't remember what was on it.

fyi it wasn't in the lounge, but at the ticket counter.

That doesn't mean anything. Many cases of FFP partnerships and codeshares with airlines of other alliances.

That said, given the NZ-QF merger is dead (for now at least) I can't see NZ leaving *A.