South America heats up

Aided by growing air access, at least one country is in hot pursuit of Asians, says Gracia Chiang

south-america
With Machu Picchu as its star attraction, Peru remains a firm favourite in itineraries

 

It once appeared inevitable that any airline with a decent network would eventually join one of the three airline coalitions – Star Alliance, SkyTeam and oneworld. Until recently, it seemed certain that none of the major Gulf carriers saw any value in joining alliances and, to be fair, it seemed equally certain that none of the alliances welcomed them.

Qantas blamed the runaway growth of the Gulf carriers for its ailing global operations and the Australian government for granting the latter liberal rights. In September, Qantas terminated its 17-year-old agreement with fellow oneworld member British Airways (BA) and took up a decade-long alliance with Emirates.

Speculation of Qatar Airways joining oneworld soon surfaced even as CEO Akbar Al Baker continued to deny the alliance rumours. Hours before Qatar’s oneworld membership was confirmed on October 8, Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways stole the limelight by announcing that airberlin – a new oneworld member in which it has an almost 30 per cent stake – was breaking its oneworld allegiance to ink a commercial partnership with Air France-KLM from the SkyTeam alliance instead.

In the same dignified manner that BA declared its break from Qantas as amicable, oneworld bravely sanctioned its members’ flirtations with airlines outside the coalition. Indeed, this is not without precedence as oneworld member Cathay Pacific holds a stake in Air China, a Star Alliance member, while Chile’s LAN from oneworld has also merged with TAM, a Brazilian carrier aligned with Star Alliance. Emirates is now in talks with American Airlines (AA), a founding oneworld member, to explore a commercial partnership of sorts.

In one fell swoop, three major Gulf carriers are now aligned with oneworld. Qatar is the only one to directly join oneworld, while Emirates and Etihad have the side-door entry through Qantas and airberlin respectively. If alliance memberships are like marriages, oneworld members appear to be particularly polygamous.

Malaysia Airlines (MAS) and SriLankan Airlines, both oneworld members designate, were looking to their pending membership in oneworld to enhance their sustainability, but now face the prospect of having to work with Qatar from within the alliance. If BA – having sponsored Qatar’s entry into oneworld – were to partner the Gulf carrier on the Kangaroo Route, what is the likelihood of it returning to serve the London-Kuala Lumpur route? Similarly, the Qantas-Emirates alliance questions the likelihood of Qantas serving Kuala Lumpur since it has sponsored MAS’ entry into oneworld. And if Air France-KLM partners Etihad on flights to Australia, it could potentially hurt KLM’s existing cooperation with MAS on the Kuala Lumpur-Australia sectors. Could this be the reason for MAS’ sudden decision to divert its Airbus A380s from the Sydney route to Paris?

Amid the flurry of airline partnerships, a oneworld member seems to embrace the sanctity of its marriage to the alliance – Japan Airlines (JAL). Thus far, it has inked significant relationships with MAS, BA and AA, all within the alliance. On the fringe, it has fewer codeshare agreements with a slew of airlines globally.

When asked by TTG Asia if JAL would seek commercial partnerships with a non-oneworld member, president Yoshiharu Ueki gave an emphatic “no”.

Additional reporting from Liang Xinyi

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