NICHOLAS IONIDES / ATLANTA
Continental, Northwest and KLM membership would make alliance level with Star
The two-year-old SkyTeam Alliance is still on the lookout for new members to fill "holes" in Latin America and Southeast Asia but full partners from those regions are not expected in the immediate future.
President and chief operating officer of SkyTeam member Delta Air Lines Fred Reid says the holes in Latin America that the grouping would like to fill are in Argentina and Brazil. He reaffirms that a Southeast Asian member is needed at some point, and there are "one or two opportunities in Europe".
He adds: "We have talked about the attractiveness of Thai, Singapore Airlines [SIA] and Malaysian. But we have nothing substantive right now because they are either tied up in another alliance or going through restructuring."
Thai Airways International and SIA are already members of the Star Alliance, while Malaysia Airlines (MAS) has been undergoing a major revamp since it was renationalised early last year.
Delta and fellow founding SkyTeam member Air France have long said they would like Thai as a member - particularly as that carrier has complained that competitor SIA was allowed to join Star. But most observers now believe Thai will remain in Star, leaving MAS as SkyTeam's best prospect. MAS already has ties with Northwest Airlines and KLM. Northwest, together with Continental Airlines, recently announced a major tie-up with Delta that, if approved by regulators, could ultimately lead to them and KLM joining SkyTeam.
Air France president and chief executive Pierre-Henri Gourgeon says it is too early to say how Northwest partner KLM's potential membership in SkyTeam may force the French carrier to align its network with the Dutch airline, but he says that "there are solutions".
SkyTeam includes AeroMexico, Air France, Alitalia, CSA Czech Airlines, Delta and Korean Air. Gourgeon says that if Northwest, KLM and Continental join, the alliance would have a global market share in terms of revenue passenger kilometres (RPK) of around 21%, based on 2001 figures. That would make it "comparable to Star", he says, and ahead of Oneworld, with a 17% RPK share.
Unlike Oneworld and Star, Reid says SkyTeam is not aggressively pursuing a member airline in China at this stage.
Source: Flight International
