Paul Phelan/CAIRNS
British Airways has signalled that the signing up of an alliance partner in the Asia-Pacific region will take a back seat as the airline first attempts to see through its tie-up with American Airlines.
Chief executive Bob Ayling told a meeting of Australia's National Aviation Press Club in August that it was "premature" to embark on new talks in Asia, given the airline's commitments elsewhere. "It would be unwise to take on more management challenges than we can absorb at any one time," he says.
Informal contacts are already understood to have been taken up with Japan Airlines, an existing American partner, raising speculation that a Japanese alliance could be in the offing.
"One only has to look at the example we have with USAir at the moment, which has not developed quite the way we had suspected or hoped, and which is diverting considerable resources into managing that relationship," he says, adding that it has taken "considerable resources" to manage the existing successful relationship with Qantas.
Ayling says the question of a relationship in north Asia could be "quite a few years" away. "If there are opportunities in the future for developing low key relationships we'll look at them, but I think it's important to do one thing at a time," he says.
However, Ayling forecast that franchising would play a bigger role in BA strategies, particularly across national borders. The airline has already expanded its list of regional franchise partners with deals in Scandinavia and South Africa, with Asia understood to be among the priorities.
Source: Flight International
