[Anonymous]

[Vertrek]

Read the news yesterday and thought it would be good to share.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/10/22/uk-airfrance-airberlin-report-idUKLNE89L01P20121022

[Henkel.Trocken]

Thanks for posting this Vertrek, it makes an interesting and thought provoking read.

I did wonder about Air Berlin going ahead with OW membership after Etihad bought their shareholding. There also seem to be a huge lack of synergies between OW carriers and Air Berlin.

Of course Germany is a *A stronghold and I would have thought OW came in a poor third with not much to offer Air Berlin except some connecting passengers but of course as their hub is not FRA there isn’t much to pick up anywhere else.

The ST proposal is definitely interesting. Let’s see what develops.

[sparkyflier]

Etihad should join Skyteam, bring Air Berlin with it, leave S7 alone and partner Aeroflot.
China Southern should leave Skyteam and join Oneworld.

[Vertrek]

Henkel

As far as I know, AB decision to join oneworld is before Etihad takeover. And now with Etihad controlling the majority stake in AB, and EY set to deepened their partnership with AF-KLM and other Sky members such as AZ, GA and the chinese carriers, for both to join ST would be logical, not to mention if EK or QR strike a deal with AA, EY will inevitably get in bed with DL in USA, considering their sister airline Virgin OZ is already in bed with DL. But as the news said, these things will not be clear until at least 2nd half of next year.

Sparkflyer,

with CX in oneworld, there is no way that CZ would switch. Beside, according to a friend, China Southern and Eastern’s partnerships with SkyTeam is really fruitful, there is no way that they would leave ST.

— || —

My thought is with oneworld at the moment. With QF-EK partnership is deepening, I would not be surprise if EK demand QF to quit oneworld.
Plus if AB decides to pursue partnership with AF-KLM and SkyTeam, Oneworld would be really weak in Europe, with only 4 members at the edges of the continent, having said that, those 3 BA,IB and AY could be very efficient with each airlines focusing on a continent, AY to Asia, BA to N.America and IB to S. America. but still, their EU network would be really weak.

Any thought?

[Hippocampus]

If you actually read the article all it says is that Air France would like Air Berlin to join SkyTeam.

[Str8Talking]

From what the article says, these are more Air France’s wishes as opposed to an actual plan. Everything is fluid in the aviation industry and can change overnight if the need is there.

On a broader scale, and having just read http://centreforaviation.com/analysis/tap-portugals-privatisation-enters-final-stage-with-avianca-taca-parent-emerging-as-only-bidder-85965 regarding TAP and the comments about the TAP/TAM partnership, I see even more reason for LATAM to stick with oneworld!

[Vertrek]

Hippocampus and Str8Talking,

that is why I typed “might”.

“If we further work closer together along the way Air Berlin must decide if it would stick to the oneworld alliance or switch to the SkyTeam alliance of AirFrance-KLM,” De Juniac.

that is also mean, if AF-KLM were to deepen their relationship with EY and AB, which I think they would considering QR-oneworld and QF-EK.
AB will be forced to pick a side.

The questions are:

Would EY let AB stay in oneworld and work with their competitor QR and give AB passengers the flexibility to choose either EY or their Arc Rival QR?

With AB focus on leisure market and oneworld focus on business market (FRA in stead of TXL), would oneworld network benefits AB’s in the long run? And how would AB network’s with SkyTeam? As AB can give and get feeders to/from more airlines in both west and east Europe.

AB is currently making lot’s of profit for code sharing with EU big 3, AF-KLM and BA, is IAG and oneworld actually happy with this decision? Is this decision is forced upon AB by EY or mutual agreement by both airlines? Or simply just an act of EY’s management to slam onewolrd’s announcement of Qatar?

And what is the motives of EY’s decision to include AB in their AF-KLM agreement? Testing the water?

Any opinion?

I know that I am a SkyTeam flyer, but unlike some people who are hard core on one alliance I am not as my prrimary alliance is Star (it might change soon), therefore, please refrain from thinking that I am against oneworld, as I am not. I just like to stimulate my thinking. =)

Safe travel

[LeTigre]

I’m afraid the title of this thread is wrong, it should be “Air France wants Air Berlin to join Skyteam”.

Is that a suprise?

No

Will it happen?

Probably not.

[Vertrek]

Why not LeTigre?

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