I'm sure this point must have alreasy been raised on the board, and I'm sure there was a post on the new co-operation between bmibaby & germanwings, but I thought I'd have a go.
There was a press release last November saying:
Star may form low cost, European units
(MUNICH) The Star Alliance, the world's largest airline group, may set up European and low-cost divisions to operate more efficiently as it expands, said SAS group chief executive officer Joergen Lindegaard.
'There could be a potential low-cost airlines set-up in Star as more and more traffic is taken over by low-cost operations,' Mr Lindegaard said in an interview in Stockholm. 'Star is looking pretty crowded with a number of airlines and potential add-ons adding to the complexity.'
Scandinavian Airlines, SAS's main brand, hopes to renew its joint venture with Lufthansa in 2005, the CEO said. Mr Lindegaard would like to see other members of the SAS Group in joint ventures with Lufthansa and Star 'but it might make it more difficult to get approval from the European Commission,' he said. - Bloomberg
Logically a pan-European no-frills airline could be created by combining the route networks of Germanwings, SAS Snowflake and BMI Baby all of which are at least partly controlled by a Star Alliance member airline, thus creating a much larger competitor to the likes of EasyJet & Ryanair.
Or at least a full alliance between all three airlines again creating a more significant competitor?