American & Condor Ink Interline Deal: A Small Step With Big Potential, Maybe?

American Airlines and Condor have just announced plans to launch a partnership. In reality, they’re just launching an interline agreement, which is the lowest level of cooperation airlines can have. However, one certainly wonders if there could eventually be more brewing here…

American & Condor announce a new “partnership”

German airline Condor is launching an interline agreement with American, which the two airlines are describing as a “partnership” in the press release. I mean, I suppose that’s technically true, in the sense that it is a form of partnering. However, keep in mind that American also interlines with Delta and United, and I’d hardly consider those airlines to be partners with one another. 😉

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With this interline partnership, travelers will be able to book their entire journey across both airlines on a single ticket, including benefits like through checked baggage to the final destination, check-in for the complete itinerary, and seamless onward connections.

This partnership seems to primarily be about American providing connectivity to transatlantic Condor passengers, as it’s noted how American serves more than 150 cities from Condor’s transatlantic gateways in Boston (BOS), Los Angeles (LAX), and New York (JFK), and starting in May 2027, Chicago (ORD).

Here’s how David Carlisle, Condor’s VP of Network Planning & Partnerships, describes this:

“With American Airlines, we are welcoming a strong partner whose network perfectly complements our own and significantly enhances our connectivity across North America. This partnership strengthens our position in the transatlantic market while offering our guests even more travel options. Together, we are continuing to expand our international network and create attractive travel opportunities on both sides of the Atlantic.”

Meanwhile here’s how Jeff Ogar, American’s Managing Director of Alliances, describes this:

“American’s new agreement with Condor underscores our commitment to connect people with the places that matter most. Combining our extensive North American network with Condor’s presence in Germany and Europe creates a winning proposition for our mutual customers. We look forward to working together to deliver more travel options for our customers.”

Condor would be a great fit for the oneworld alliance

It has been a fascinating several years for Condor, as the airline has gone from being heavily leisure focused in terms of its destination, to competing more head-on with Lufthansa (and that has come at a cost, including Lufthansa ending its preferential feeder agreement with Condor).

It’s clear that something eventually has to give with Condor, since you don’t see many global airlines in Europe that aren’t part of an alliance, and/or aren’t part of a major airline group. As I’ve covered before, it sure seems like Condor is ripe to join one of the major alliances, at a minimum, or even to be acquired by one of the “big three” European airline groups.

Obviously Condor wouldn’t join Star Alliance or Lufthansa Group, since that’s the airline they’re competing directly against, and regulators would be unlikely to approve a merger. It seems to me like the best fit would be oneworld and/or IAG (the parent company of British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus, etc.), given that:

• Condor already has a partnership with Alaska, and now is partnering more closely with American (even if it’s just an interline)
• IAG airlines are based in Ireland, the UK, and Spain, so there’s value in having an airline with a bit of geographic diversity

The thing is, it’s also tough to figure out what value Condor would add, exactly. Sure, it would give access to the German market, and if the airline could join one of the transatlantic joint ventures, it would have more pricing power (which would be bad for consumers in many ways).

But the airline is quirky in terms of its scale, as it has a good size long haul network, with a fairly limited (but growing) feeder network. Frankfurt (FRA) also isn’t a huge origin and destination market as such, and simply being a second place airline at a hub isn’t typically a recipe for success. The one stop service that Condor can offer is also available through many other airlines.

Anyway, I’d definitely love to see American and Condor at least expand their partnership to include loyalty reciprocity, in terms of earning and redeeming miles, and taking advantage of elite perks. But unless Condor joins the alliance or transatlantic joint venture, that doesn’t strike me as particularly likely, since it doesn’t really further American’s goals much.

Bottom line

American and Condor have announced a “partnership,” which is really just an interline agreement, allowing travelers to book itineraries that include flights on both airlines. There’s no official indication that things will go further than that, and that we will see loyalty reciprocity, or anything along those lines.

However, Condor is still struggling to find its place in the market, and we know the airline is interested in more partnerships, or even consolidation. The oneworld alliance and/or IAG would definitely be the best fit for Condor, but that’s not to say that anything will happen.

What do you make of this American and Condor “partnership?”