Twinkle Twinkle little Star

It looks as if Continental and United have agreed to link their networks and services. This will eventually lead to Continental joining the Star Alliance.

Currently Continental is part of the SkyTeam members who include Aeroflot, AeroMéxico,Air France, Alitalia, China Southern, Czech Airlines, Delta, KLM, Korean, Northwest. Without Continental, there are some dogs left with Alitalia leading the pack.

From my perspective, this is a good move for Continental in that the partners in Star Alliance are more attractive as they include Lufthansa and one of my favorite airlines, Singapore.

This will present me with a bit of a dilema now: Which airline do I accumalate rewards on? Houston is hub for Continental but I don't particularly like flying with them. However, if I can use Continental for some of the other airlines, things look better already. I also have a Lufthasa 'Miles and More' account with some milage on it though not as much as Continental.

The other major airline consortium that I fly with and like is 'oneworld' which features British Airways, American, Cathay Pacific, JAL and Qantas amongst their membership. I've flow with
Cathay and that are not quite Singapore standard but good nevertheless.

Is this an opening shot for the battle of the skys? There is too much capacity at the price bracket we all pay where all airlines are hurting with high price of fuel. (There I go again bloging on about energy..)

CodeShare is one way to reduce capacity - airlines agree this to keep their financial interest in ticketing of a route but not necessarily fly it. It may also portend takeover paths for stronger airlines to absorb a weaker partner. Witness KLM being taken over by Air France though things aren't going so well on Air France taking over Alitalia. Alitalia is a basket case.

One thing hampering the merging of the airline industry is yes, you've guessed it : Politics. Policians of all countries whether left or right are stuck in the mode that their country must have a national airline. Their argument is that it 'flies the flag' when abroad.

What a sock of crock. Why should a country run an airline? It is as stupid as each country have their own cola company. This is legacy from days of old when air travel was in its infancy and air fares we high.

It is good to see companies like EasyJet run across Europe that runs its flight like a bus route as in not just direct but a round trip. Same with Southwest in the US.

Whilst US doesn't have 1 national airline, it does have barriers to stop foreign companies from flying within it's borders. They can fly into the county but not continue to fly within in it such as a bus. So much for free trade.

For the mess that politicians create inside air travel, you just need to look at European Union and US 'open skies' agreement. In the US, look at the Wright Amendment.

It seems to this blogger that the cost of fuel may accelerate the merging of many airlines companies so we have a few strong players. Bad news for the traveler but realistically, I don't see the status quo surviving.

I just hope that it bring a merge of the best attributes. Ideally we have a Singapore airlines standard across them all but I doubt it.

For SkyTeam what I fear we will end up with opposite and a lowest common demoninator approach: an Aeroflot safety record, an Airitalia business sense, any American carrier attitude to food, and an AirFrance record of loosing my luggage.

Ah, the romance of travel.

Philea Fogg,
Houston, Texas
21st June 2008.