It seems spring is in the air for alliances as companies buddy up together. Today seems no exception with Kingfisher Airlines of India joining OneWorld.
A memorandum of understanding has been signed as a first step between the current 11 members of OneWorld and Kingfisher, and should progress into full membership – subject to Indian regulatory approval from India’s Ministry of Civil Aviation.
British Airways will be mentoring Kingfisher during this period, sponsoring the airline (who is also sponsoring S7 Airline’s entry into OneWorld)
Kingfisher is expected to join OneWorld (subject to approval) in 2011.
It’s an interesting move by OneWorld, who are needing to plug to India gap as Air India is slowly moving towards Star Alliance membership – which puts SkyTeam back in the catch-up position again – even with it’s recent admissions of TAROM and Vietnam Airlines.
The fate of Aegean airlines and Star Alliance is going to be an interesting question due to the tie up of Olympic Air and Aegean – more on this a bit later…
http://www.oneworld.com/ow/news/details?objectID=20873
