The SkyTeam alliance today announced the first four regional carriers set to join the global airline grouping as associate members. Spain's Air Europa, Panama's Copa Airlines, Kenya Airways and Romania's Tarom are expected to integrate their networks sometime next year.
SkyTeam first announced the associate member program more than two years ago
(BTNonline, Jan. 23, 2003). It is designed for smaller carriers interested in leveraging the worldwide network and aligning customer service programs, without incurring the full cost of membership required of larger members. Each of the four new carriers agreed to adopt the frequent flyer program of an existing member, create reciprocal airport lounge programs and market codeshare flights inside the alliance.
With a combined fleet total of 96 aircraft serving more than 12 million annual customers, the first associate SkyTeam members would bring to the alliance new destinations within their respective spheres of operations: Air Europa in western Europe, Tarom in central Europe, Copa in the Americas and Kenya in Africa. Overall, SkyTeam would count 13 carriers as members.
Meanwhile, American Airlines CEO Gerard Arpey yesterday during an investor's conference sponsored by Merrill Lynch, stressed quality over quantity in terms of airline alliance membership. "We don't have as a long a list of partners around the world because we didn't seek to create as long a list," he said of the eight-member Oneworld alliance. "We sought to find the strongest, most stable, high-service partners around the world."
Arpey also said he is "hopeful" that Japan Airlines would decide to become Oneworld's next member. Japan Airlines already has bilateral relationships in place with American and other international carriers.
Star Alliance has the largest number of member carriers among the three primary global airlines with 16. The grouping will grow even larger when South African Airways and Swiss International Air Lines officially join late this year or early in 2006
(BTNonline, June 2).