Emma Kelly/PARIS and ATLANTA
Air France and Delta Air Lines are identifying members of competing alliances to join their unnamed airline grouping, which they aim to unveil in the second quarter.
The partners are tight-lipped on potential alliance members following disappointment over their public courting of British Midland (BM) and its subsequent decision to join the rival Star Alliance.
Air France and Delta, which joined forces last year after the break-up of Delta's Atlantic Excellence Alliance with Swissair and its Qualiflyer partners, have signed Aeromexico and Korean Air as alliance members. The four are unlikely to recruit more airlines before the brand is unveiled.
Membership of competing alliances Star and oneworld is not set in stone, says Jean-Cyril Spinetta, Air France chairman and chief executive. "The European global landscape is far from having completed its changes," he says.
"You may have had airlines joining certain alliances at an early stage because they didn't have much choice, but they haven't necessarily joined the right alliance," says Ben Darnell, Delta's director of alliances.
Changes in airline equity will affect the alliance landscape, he adds. The partners remain unconvinced, for example, of Singapore Airlines' Star commitment, particularly due to the time taken to become a full member and its recent equity purchase of Virgin, which is not keen to join Star.
Air France and Delta are "working with many airlines" on possible alliance membership, but prefer "to be discreet" following the BM incident, says Spinetta.
Rather than having the largest number of partners, Air France and Delta's aim is to ensure that the alliance is extensive enough to cover all of the major markets and small enough to focus on quality of service, says Spinetta.
They are standing by their north Asian partner Korean Air, despite the carrier's poor safety record, with the airline's new hub at Inchon International Airport, near Seoul, its main attraction.
Inchon will be "the only true 24h connection hub in Asia, which will be a tremendous asset to us", says Darnell. Air France and Delta have yet to reinstate their codeshares on Korean's flights, but continue to monitor the airline's progress on safety issues. Darnell says Korean has "a very good handle on the areas that they need to strengthen", adding: "We have no doubt they will be successful in doing that."
The new alliance is also looking to fill gaps in the rest of Asia. Thai Airways International remains attractive, when its privatisation goes ahead, while China and Japan are also "of key interest", says Darnell. Delta already codeshares with China Southern.
Air France has become the owner of Ireland's CityJet. The flag carrier acquired a 67% stake held by Air Foyle.
Source: Flight International
