Aer Lingus leaving oneworld
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I don't think it's just a question of fit. There are considerable overheads in being a member of an alliance. Realistically, an airline needs to ask itself whether the extra revenue can justify the expenditure. This is especially true for smaller alliance members who are really only used as feeders for the larger airlines.
Furthermore, they put a lot of traffic BA's way with their services into Heathrow. BA don't seem to return the compliment by providing connections from UK regional airports into EI's hub in Dublin.
Aer Lingus operate codeshares with KLM on DUB-AMS and ORK-AMS despite being in a different alliance. They will probably continue to do the same with BA on DUB-LHR, ORK-LHR and SNN-LHR. The difference will be that they will be using the elements of the alliance as it suits them on an ad hoc basis rather than committing themselves to all of them.
Furthermore, they put a lot of traffic BA's way with their services into Heathrow. BA don't seem to return the compliment by providing connections from UK regional airports into EI's hub in Dublin.
Aer Lingus operate codeshares with KLM on DUB-AMS and ORK-AMS despite being in a different alliance. They will probably continue to do the same with BA on DUB-LHR, ORK-LHR and SNN-LHR. The difference will be that they will be using the elements of the alliance as it suits them on an ad hoc basis rather than committing themselves to all of them.
as far as I know they still provide connecting services and a business class...[/quote]sab319 wrote:IB and BA Connect also do not fit in the same alliance...
They provide a connecting service, but Aer Lingus still does this.
BA Connect does not provide business class (except on routes from London City). In addition, Finnair does not provide business class on a number of routes.
QANTAS and Cathay are rival and ally, kinda weird. QANTAS code-share with Cathay on HKG to Rome, but the HKG-SYD, for example, they're competing against each other. But I think oneworld brought them closer. If not for the alliance, they're more an enemy type of relationship.
Aer Lingus leaving is not going to have much impact, in my opinion. After all, there are still several European carriers in the alliance. I think with JAL joining, it will give a boost to the alliance. They need to get China Eastern to join, but MU is not doing so well lately. Royal Jordanian will give the alliance some support in the Middle East. The strategy of quality over quantity may work out well, but they need to fill the gap in the network.
Aer Lingus leaving is not going to have much impact, in my opinion. After all, there are still several European carriers in the alliance. I think with JAL joining, it will give a boost to the alliance. They need to get China Eastern to join, but MU is not doing so well lately. Royal Jordanian will give the alliance some support in the Middle East. The strategy of quality over quantity may work out well, but they need to fill the gap in the network.
Sorry back to the QF/CX thing, it is amazingly weird!! From AKL QF themselves still have fares that transfer in an Australian city and then to HKG on QF planes and code (no codeshare) but then there is always teh choice of people taking Cathay doing exactly the same thing! But at the moment direct flight from AKL to HKG has the exact same base fare than transferring at Australia, and it is more expensive to transfer because the Australian tax is crazy!!!
I don't see it as a case of not fitting. As has been pointed out, there is little difference between the service provided by Aer Lingus and that provided by BA Connect or Iberia (or looking at Star Alliance bmi).CXRules wrote:CX, just be careful being accused of off topic! :insult:
The Skytrax thing just showed another reason why Aer Lingus doesn't fit any more.
The real question is whether a small airline gets significant benefit as part of an alliance.
Although, it's no secret that Aer Lingus management had been evaluating the airlines position in recent years, the final decision seems to have been because of the level of IT investment required to support the entry of JAL, Royal Jordanian and Malev. It is doubtful whether Aer Lingus would have seen significant numbers of connecting pax with the first two in particular.
Basically, all Aer Lingus want from the alliance is to be able to operate code shares with BA, Iberia and American Airlines. They will continue to be able to do this outside OneWorld.
In addition, it will give them a freer hand in their new arrangements with Emirates and remove doubts about the long-standing arrangement with KLM.
A final reason is that there is a rumour that Emirates intend to take a signifcant stake in Aer Lingus post-privatisation. Clearly, this would have been incompatible with the OneWorld status.