After yesterday's news that Qatar Airways would with near certainty be joining OneWorld, it looks like that's not actually the case. Per Reuters: Qatar Airways has no plans to join the oneworld airline alliance, its Chief Executive Akbar al-Baker said on Sunday, dismissing reports that the airline had become the newest member of the group…
Continue reading: So Qatar Airways isn’t joining OneWorld for now…
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Hmm, who can it be? I recently read about Virgin's situation, the CEO is jumping ship and they made a big loss. There has been a bit of speculation that they would join an alliance to try to boost business - how ironic would that be if they joined their arch-rival's programme? Nah, can't really see that happening either 🙂
I think that in the aftermath of the QF/EK tie up, Clark said they had no plans to join an alliance when asked about it.
I have always suspected WestJet might join sooner or later they already have codeshare agreements with more than one of the Oneworld members and they had showed interest in the past.
WestJet actually sounds like a serious option as they just inked a codeshare with British Airways and already have agreements with Cathay and American. They had showed interest before as I said but back then it was considered that as a low cost carrier they didn't match their business structure but things have changed now.
I think you're reading way too much into the PR-speak about "significant membership development"'s meaning. I'd bet on an actual join date for Malaysia and/or Sri Lankan.
Like you said earlier Qatar should join Star. Star would be a much better fit.
@ RakSiam -- Perhaps I am, but do the CEOs for several airlines really need to meet to announce the joining date? Seems that would be reserved for either announcements of new carriers or the joining ceremony, no?
I say, it could be Hainan, Oneworld is really behind in the mainland China game. Hainan is already in bed with American, and with their lack of destinations overseas they might be a bit desperate to join an alliance get their scope a little wider