planemanofnz wrote:What are EI's US partnerships going to look like in the future? At the moment, there are a mish-mash of deals with AA, AS, B6 and UA in the US. Are they likely to move away from UA and get closer to AA, given the TATL JV, and perhaps even (re)join oneworld again?
The transatlantic JV is already well on the way at EI, so I daresay it might fully become operational right around the time the UA agreement ends. Or the UA agreement might end once EI get their ducks in a row for the JV!
Entirely possible they will join
oneworld again, possibly as a
oneworld Connect member like Fiji Airways. That way they could just have close partnerships with BA (a foregone conclusion), AA (almost certainly), IB (almost certainly), and AY (very probably. I would place money on QR being high on the list after that, as it would open up the Middle East, Asia and Africa properly. I honestly don't see any other potential airlines in a
oneworld Connect scenario, though maybe QF and CX may, as long shots. It would, of course, be a lot better if they just joined the alliance again though, but Connect with the transatlantic partners would satisfy most people I guess.
B6, not sure what will happen there, the JetBlue partnership has been around longer than United, actually.
Fingers crossed we see some movement soon!