SkyTeam vs. Star Alliance vs. OneWorld. The 3 big airline alliances completely dominate the skies, but which one takes your flight of fancy?
Singapore Airlines (Star Alliance), Korean Air (SkyTeam), and Cathay Pacific (OneWorld) at Beijing Capital Airport
Sometimes when you are booking flights it is beneficial to be able to utilise the various airline alliances that exist around the world. For example, when airlines are part of an alliance, they no longer need to serve certain destinations that their partners already fly to. As a passenger, you can book a flight between Singapore and Madagascar, for example, despite no direct flights between the two countries. Utilising your possibilities, you can fly from Singapore to Johannesburg with Singapore Airlines, and then change to a South African Airways flight from Johannesburg to Antananarivo in Madagascar. This can all be booked on the same ticket (with a few restrictions), because the airlines in question are all part of the same alliance or team, in this case Star Alliance. So it opens up many more possibilities to the passengers, and also keeps things much more economical for the airlines themselves, as they can offer tickets to certain destinations, without flying there on their own metal.
China Southern are a member of SkyTeam
Some airlines have planes coloured in alliance livery, like this B747 from China Airlines
SkyTeam was founded in 2000 by AeroMéxico, Air France, Delta Air Lines, and Korean Air. SkyTeam was the last of the three major airline alliances to be formed, the first two being Star Alliance and OneWorld. However, in terms of the number of passengers and the number of members, SkyTeam has grown and is now the second largest alliance in the world, second only to Star Alliance and ahead of OneWorld.
As of 2014, SkyTeam flies to more than 1,000 destinations in 178 countries, and operates some 15,700 daily flights with a combined fleet of over 4,400 aircraft, including associate carriers. The alliance and its members have a total workforce of 459,781; furthermore, it has 564 lounges worldwide to serve 588 million annual passengers.
British Airways are a founding member of OneWorld
Qatar Airways are one of the newer members of OneWorld
OneWorld is an airline alliance founded on 1 February 1999. The alliance’s stated objective is to be the first-choice airline alliance for the world’s frequent international travellers. Its central alliance office is currently based in New York City, New York, in the United States. Its member airlines include Air Berlin, American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Qatar Airways, Royal Jordanian, S7 Airlines, TAM Airlines, SriLankan Airlines and US Airways plus some 30 affiliated airlines. As of 31 March 2014, OneWorld is the third largest global alliance in terms of passengers with 506.9 M passengers, behind Star Alliance (637.6 M) and SkyTeam (588 M). Its slogan is, “An alliance of the world’s leading airlines working as one.”
At the end of 2014, its member airlines collectively operate a fleet of some 3,300 aircraft, serve about a thousand airports in more than 150 countries, carrying 475 million passengers per year on 14,000 daily departures, generating annual revenues of more than US$ 140 billion.
Ethiopian Airlines are part of Star Alliance
Thai Airways are an integral part of Star Alliance in South East Asia
Star Alliance is the world’s largest global airline alliance, and headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany. It was founded on May 14, 1997, with its name and emblem representing the five founding airlines (Lufthansa, Thai, Air Canada, United, and Scandinavian). Star Alliance has since grown considerably and its current member airlines are Adria Airways, Aegean Airlines, Air Canada, Air China, Air India, Air New Zealand, All Nippon Airways, Asiana, Austrian Airlines, Avianca, Brussels Airlines, Copa Airlines, Croatia Airlines, Egyptair, Ethiopian Airlines, EVA Air, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways, Swiss, TAP Portugal, Thai, Turkish Airlines, and United. The current members have more than 18,000 daily departures combined. These flights reach 1,269 airports in more than 192 countries, with an annual number of 637.6 million passengers.
Etihad B777 taxiing to the gate at LAX
Some airlines choose not to enter the 3 existing alliances, and instead form their own kind of alliance (or go it completely alone in the case of Emirates). One such ‘independent alliance’ is the Jet-Etihad Strategic Alliance, which is led by Etihad Airways and includes their many subsidiaries, such as airberlin and Air Seychelles. It remains to be seen if the chosen isolation of this prestigious pair of Emirates and Etihad from the so-called “big Middle-East 4″ (Qatar Airways is part of OneWorld and Turkish Airlines is part of Star Alliance) is a wise move or not, though certainly in the case of Emirates, one must consider they are such a big and powerful airline that they really don’t need the help of anyone else anyway.
So which alliance are you?