There are reports that Star Alliance is in talks with Air Malta about the carrier joining the alliance. I guess we shouldn't be too surprised given half the world's airlines seem to be joining or already members of Star these days....

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Half of the world's airlines, evidently not from South America. Anyone know if any airliner there will enroll?

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While Star Alliance is growing to become a juggernaut, the benefits to FF are great. Independent of which airline I fly with as Star Gold, I always feel well taken care off.

In regards to the South American market, TAM Brazil will join sometime in the near future http://www.staralliance.com/en/press/press_releases/2008/tam_join.html

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Is it realy Star Alliance or Lufthansa Alliance now, given the recent so called mergers/bail outs with BMi, Austrian, SAS etc.....part of the greater Lufhansa global takeover maybe?....Malta will probably just become another Lufthanse hub for North/Central Africa etc, I am sure there will be greater 'due diligence' with TAM after the demise of VARIG

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Hey come on guys not all of us get to fly with all the Big Player s ( well only couple times a year !!! ) My Company has several investment s in Malta and i normally do 20 - 25 returns a year all with Air Malta . For a small National Airline they do very well Having good Timekeeping results at LHR and a good product. Also Their entry into the Star Alliance would make ticketing and through travel that much easier for our company and others. Good Luck.

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I believe the EU is turning down the merger on Lufthansa and Austria.

Scandinavian is losing so much money and downscaling their operations so heavily I doubt any company would be interested in them. If they stay alive, it will probably be as a regional airline.

Lufthansa themselves are losing money by the bucket these days, so I figure they may be happy to let go on Austrian.

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