Though airline alliances will come and go in the years to come, this survey demonstrates that they will almost certainly remain a strong feature of the industry. Despite some significant deletions since last year, particularly in the realm of route specific cooperation, each time an agreement has died another partnership has grown up elsewhere or even in its place.

This year's Airline Business survey details over 320 alliances, a 14 per cent increase over 1994. While this figure is slightly distorted by the addition of a small number of old alliances which were not reported last year, about 50 new alliances have been concluded since May 1994. This represents over 15 per cent of the total agreements listed.

The figure excludes those alliances that were listed as being planned last year and have since come to fruition. Alliances solely limited to cooperation on Frequent Flyer plans have not been listed this year either, making the real increase even higher.

There have been some significant new entrants to the alliance movement, in the form of players such as TAP Air Portugal, Asiana and EVA Air, and this year's survey includes 153 carriers, 17 more than last year's.

In the past year, new broad strategic alliances have been few and far between, and equity investments have been a rarity. To date, the latter have included Air New Zealand's proposed investment in Ansett Australia; Swissair's proposed purchase of a stake in Sabena; Mesa and Continental's investments in America West; Cathay's investment in Air Hong Kong; and South African Airways' holding in Alliance. Malaysia Airlines' interest in Royal Air Cambodge so far appears to be a standalone investment.

As a result the percentage of alliances involving an equity holding declined from 20.6 per cent last year to just 17.8 per cent.

The roll call of carriers with the most agreements changed a little, with Iberia moving from third to first place with 27 alliances and Lufthansa and Air France in joint second with 25.

They are followed by Malaysia Airlines (19); Austrian Airlines (18); United Airlines, Korean and KLM (14 each); Delta Air Lines (13); Varig (12); and British Midland, Vietnam Airlines and Garuda (10 each).

Domestic regional carriers that do not operate jets with over 100 seats have been excluded from both the alliance and the equity tables. Regionals that have cross-border cooperation with a major foreign airline are listed, however. Charter carriers controlled by major airlines appear only in the equity tables.

The next 17 pages of alliance tables are followed by an analysis and a second set of tables on cross-border airline equity holdings. Finally, a feature examines the outcome of US studies into codesharing, which continues to form the backbone of most extensive alliance agreements.

Source: Airline Business

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