Chances are, you’ve never heard of any airline alliances, yet they are the strongest factor in the airline industry to date! Airline alliances are very much the ‘man behind the scenes’, going as far to determine which flight you fly on, even before you book your flight!
Airline alliances are agreements between several airlines or air charter companies that allows them to offer exciting possibilities.
These possibilities include code sharing, sharing departure lounges, cross-airline air miles systems, more efficient transfers between one or more airlines in the alliance, and more!
There are literally hundreds of airline alliances, some spanning just a few airlines, trying to conquer the a certain part of the globe, others feature many airlines, trying to conquer the world.
Despite this, there are only three major alliances: SkyTeam, Oneworld and Star Alliance, with the latter being the largest airline alliance of them all.
Size of airline alliances can be measured by one of two ways, revenue passenger kilometers and number of members.
Revenue passenger kilometers is essentially a measure of how many people fly on a given airline. A revenue passenger-kilometer is flown when a paying passenger (revenue passenger) is carried one kilometer.
So, how exactly do the various airline alliances operate and what makes each of them special?
Star Alliance
We’ll start off with not only the biggest, but the oldest too! Star Alliance was founded in 1997 by five of the world’s largest airlines: Lufthansa, United, Scandinavian Airlines, Thai Airways and Air Canada.
The main goal of the alliance from the get-go has been to ‘Take passengers to every major city on earth!’
Star Alliance, in its over 20 year history has been constantly evolving, adding new members, whilst seeing old ones leave. Their members include:
- Adria Airways (Potentially, ceased operations in 2019 but were bought out in 2020)
- Aegean Airlines
- Air Canada
- Air China
- Air New Zealand
- ANA
- Asiana Airlines
- Austrian
- Avianca
- Brussels Airlines
- Copa Airlines
- Croatia Airlines
- Egyptair
- Ethiopian Airlines
- EVA Air
- LOT Polish Airlines
- Lufthansa
- Scandinavian Airlines
- Shenzhen Airlines
- Singapore Airlines
- South African Airways
- Swiss
- TAP Portugal
- Thai Airways
- Turkish Airlines
- United Airlines
Currently, Star Alliance is the largest alliance in the world, both in terms of their RPK and the number of members and affiliates it has, and this is likely to continue to grow as a result of this success.
SkyTeam
SkyTeam was the last of the major airline alliances to be formed.
The founding SkyTeam members were not interested in joining Oneworld or Star Alliance due to a number of various factors, but they foresaw that if they did not, they would be left behind in the industry.
So, in June 2000, four of the world’s largest airlines came together in New York to discuss this problem. They didn’t want to join either of the other two, but knew that they had to, or did they?
They realized that they could create a third alliance, and still be big enough to be a relevant threat to both Oneworld and Star Alliance.
So, in June 2000, representatives of Delta Air Lines, Aeroméxico, Air France, and Korean Air came together to form a third alliance, one they called ‘SkyTeam’ as they’d be a team in the sky.
For a long time they were merely number two, but then they overtook Oneworld to become the second largest after acquiring several new members. To date, their members include:
- Aeroflot
- Aerolíneas Argentinas
- Aeromexico
- Air Europa
- Air France
- Alitalia
- China Airlines
- China Eastern
- China Southern
- Czech Airlines
- Delta Air Lines
- Kenya Airways
- KLM
- Korean Air
- Middle East Airlines
- Saudia
- TAROM
- Vietnam Airlines
- Xiamen Air
Oneworld
Oneworld is probably the world’s most elite alliance.
And I don’t say that lightly, Oneworld is the alliance of many flag carriers and is often considered to be the crowning alliance- by that, they are populated with airlines of monarchs, including the British and Jordanian royal families.
Oneworld was founded in Spetember 1998 by American airlines, British Airways, Qantas, Cathay Pacific and Canadian Airlines (who left upon their merger with Air Canada).
Their goal was very similar to that of Star Alliance, to serve the world and make the industry more efficient. This was well intentioned and worked quite well.
Since their founding, Oneworld has continued to expand. As of 2020, their members include:
- American Airlines
- British Airways
- Cathay Pacific
- Finnair
- Iberia
- Japan Airlines
- LATAM
- Malaysia Airlines
- Qantas
- Qatar Airways
- Royal Jordanian
- S7 Airlines
- Mexicana
How well do airline alliances operate?
Obviously, their goal was to revolutionize the industry. They wanted to make the industry far more productive than it was before. They wanted to ultimately make the world a better place, but how well have they done this?
Many argue both ways. Some say that there are a myriad of reasons why the airline alliance system is broken, and not fit for purpose. This is because they believe that the airline industry has become too consolidated due to these main three alliances.
If you want to succeed in the airline industry, you have to be apart of one of the main three, the thousands of others simply won’t cut it.
They also argue that they push out smaller competitors who aim to improve one region. For example, you’ve never heard of the Vanilla Alliance, but they’re the largest alliance in the Indian Ocean.
Yet, people only ever pay attention to big ones as to get the best coverage for their business!
Others vehemently disagree and insist that they allow passengers more opportunities than they did 20 years ago.
They argue that because they allow for smoother connections and easier access to more lounges and terminals, that they are a good thing.
They say that this means that they have fulfilled their duty as an airline alliance. To make the whole industry more streamlined.
They also argue that they allow for less price wars. After all, why would you fight with someone who’s passengers you share? That just doesn’t make sense from a business perspective or a logic perspective.
Ultimately, whether or not airline alliances are good or bad is up to you. Some will agree with you. Others will disagree with you. It’s simply a factor of life.
Do you believe that airline alliances are fit for purpose? Should we still have airline alliances? Should we have more of them? Tell me in the comments!