Finnair has opened alliance talks with British Airways to compete with the Star Alliance partners SAS and Lufthansa in Scandinavia. The Finnish carrier says that no shareholding is on the table. The talks will cover a range of options stretching from linked frequent flyer programmes and code-sharing to joint marketing and sales, effectively replacing the Finnish airline's former agreement with Lufthansa, which began to founder after the German airline linked with competitor SAS. Finnair announced in August that it would end its seven-year alliance with Lufthansa and co-operation is due to terminate formally on 25 October.
Finnair has already begun a challenge to SAS with an aggressive expansion in the Swedish market and a series of codesharing links with Denmark's Maersk Air, Braathens SAFE and Transwede.
Since May, further European code-sharing deals have been struck with Swissair, Austrian Airlines and more recently Air France, which begins a codesharing co-operation between Helsinki and Paris on 26 October.
Despite these deals, largely limited to individual routes, Finnair has said that it intended to join one of Europe's emerging global alliances. Braathens is understood to have been keen to include the Finnish carrier in its proposed partnership with KLM, which was announced in August. KLM plans to complete the purchase of a 30%equity stake in Braathens early next year, also effectively tying in Transwede, in which the Norwegian carrier owns 50%.
If Finnair links with BA it would effectively mean that all three of Europe's major alliances are now able to fight it out in Scandinavia, leaving only Maersk as a major independent. SAS admits that it had feared that Braathens would join with BA, building on an existing frequent flyer programme link.
Finnair says that it will focus on "optimising" connections between its own flights and the BA global network via London Heathrow and Gatwick.
Source: Flight International
