Oneworld Alliance...

[tristar500]

What the hell is going on at the Oneworld Alliance?

Its nothing short of a joke. The STAR Alliance is miles ahead, adding big names frequently, with SKYTEAM running a close second.

Lets look at Oneworld airlines that are publicly commenting on the possibility of leaving said alliance / or do not meet the alliance criteria.

(Full service on board, executive lounge access and business class are but a few of the requirements of being a member of Oneworld...

Aer Lingus - Dont offer Domestic / European Business Class / Pay for food and drinks on board domestic/European flights

Iberia - Pay for food and drinks on board - domestic/European flights. Recently quoted as saying they no longer have the same vision and close-ness they had with the alliance and BA as they did in the early years - (Great... Since BAs 'preferred European partner is Iberia and since BA just bought AAs stake in Iberia just 2 weeks ago)

American Airlines - Feeling that they no longer see the benefit of being in Oneworld... With a possible merger with another US major they may well join a rival alliance.

Qantas - Have recently hinted at leaving Oneworld to join 'a rival alliance'. As having majority stake in Air NewZealand (STAR Member) who knows...

Maybe the rumours are true that a bid for BA is being prepared...

[tristar500]

See your point but the names joining Oneworld (with the exception of JAL) are hardly world-wide big named companies are they?

Its just another nail in the coffin for BA... Playing catchup in every respect these days.

[PlatinumCross]

Every alliance needs a balance of big intercontinental carriers and smaller regional carriers. This is exactly what Malev, Royal Jordanian, Dragonair, LAN Ecuador and LAN Argentina are doing for Oneworld.

Many smaller airlines in Star like BMI, LOT, TAP, Spanair, Shanghai Airlines and US Airways aren't very well known outside of their home continents but that would not conjecture that they are as useless to Star as Malev and Royal Jordanian will be for Oneworld.

Also, since when did Qantas hint at leaving Oneworld or own a majority stake in Air New Zealand? I thought the NZ government owned 79.9% of it. Qantas's interests in Air New Zealand are only in the form of convertable notes to the amount of about 0.4% of all of Air New Zealand's available shares.

[EI-BUD]

I have read some of the comments about Oneword and the alliances. I mostly use Star as it just has a bigger scale of coverage worldwide. However, I do like many of the OneWorld carriers.

The whole wave of consolidation that is going on and being talked about is bound to have implications for the alliances long term. THe possible ties up in the states between that major carriers will see some movement between carriers. What does anyone think?

AirNewZealand has been pressing for a tie up with Qantas, although unlikely to happen this could see one or other of them jumps top the other alliance?

There are so many big carriers left outside of the alliances, eg Emirates. It will be interesting to see what the future make up will be. I think long term there will be 2 alliances . I think many carriers may follow Aer Lingus's lead and come out of the alliances and make independent arrangements with there preferred airlines.

But its hard to know....

[MarkD]

WestJet are looking hard at OW which would be very nice for BA and AA in particular. Still annoyed about EI though.

[EI-BUD]

I read in the newspaper that Willie Walsh is very interested in Westjet and the 2 companies BA & Westjet are drawing up some sort of formal alliance for connection inside Canada. The article was focusing on the New Calgary Heathrow route which will be stepped up in frequency in 2007. The undertone in the article was telling me that BA may look at investment in the company. However, Willie Walsh is noted as saying its they are talking but maybe not about that. So this will be no surprise. Maybe a link with BA would mean Westjet going OneWorld.

Having said that there probably would be issues with BA investing in a Canadian company... Perhaps if anything a minority holding.