US Airways during its second-quarter earnings call on
Wednesday said it hopes to join its Star Alliance partners in joint venture
initiatives but would not disclose further details on the status of those
efforts.
Asked by an airline analyst if US Airways is seeing incremental contributions
from Continental Airlines' relatively recent membership in the Star Alliance,
president Scott Kirby replied, "We aren't really seeing much incremental
yet with Continental joining Star, but we haven't done much integration with
Continental. We do have some benefits in sharing clubs and other things, but
the bigger benefits—codeshare and potential participation in the JV—are things
that we hope are on the horizon, but aren't in place yet."
The carrier confirmed that it would like to be in a joint venture, but would
not comment further on when or if discussions are happening.
Continental announced its plans to join Star Alliance in 2008, bolstered by an
antitrust-immune joint venture with Air Canada, Lufthansa and United Airlines
on transatlantic markets. US Airways thus far had been absent from Star
carriers' joint venture initiatives, which are expanding to Pacific markets,
with a pending joint venture among All Nippon Airways, Continental and United.
US Airways would not say whether it is eying joint venture participation on the
Atlantic or Pacific, or both, though the carrier has minimal coverage in Asian
markets.