Originally Posted by
davidjohnson6
Non-Oneworld airlines based in or near Europe who currently fly to Heathrow and which do not have a major hub with plenty of long-haul flights to feed. Some of these airlines (if they are not already in trouble) will admit to themselves how difficult it is to compete against the LCC onslaught or come to a stage where they urgently need to convert some family silver into cash and eventually sell their slots to carriers wanting to fly long-haul to LHR.
Aegean Airlines, Air Algerie, Air Serbia, Bulgaria Air, Croatia Airlines, Eurowings, KM Malta, Middle East Airlines, Tunisair - I'm looking at you
I’d remove Aegean from that list at least. They are a Star Alliance member and shift a lot of transfers at LHR to the US/Canada and beyond. Plus they make money so not in any immediate need to sell up.
I think the Maltese Gov wouldn’t let KM lose the slot at LHR. It’s always been protected by them.
Didn’t Air Algerie and Tunisair both lose some slots already for not keeping to schedule enough?
Eurowings stays within the LH group so it might be transferred to another if they need it more but I doubt it. They also bring transfer traffic to other Star Alliance carriers.
With the SAS partnership with AF/KL we could eventually see some rationalisation of slots within that group. KL flying E190s could easily end and send those pax via CPH instead.