Things in the Sky

The potential of Delta investing in JAL and having that carrier move over to SkyTeam has been one of the more exciting stories of late. At an event commemorating Mexicana’s entrance into oneworld, American CEO Gerard Arpey (who is also Chairman of the oneworld Board of Governors) had some interesting things to say about JAL:

“Let me be very clear. JAL is a highly valued member of oneworld. The alliance and its other member airlines have deep and long-standing partnerships with JAL that produce hundreds of millions of dollars of value for JAL, and we are committed to maintaining and strengthening that partnership.

As its country’s and the region’s biggest airline, Japan Airlines has been right in the eye of the storm. The media have been speculating extensively on JAL’s prospects and its alliance strategy. We are convinced that we can deliver the most meaningful alliance value to JAL — by a wide margin — and without any of the regulatory risk a change in alliance strategy would mean for them, not to mention the financial costs JAL would incur if it changed alliances at such a critical phase in its restructuring.”

(Emphasis mine.)

Obviously, American and oneworld want JAL to stay where it is . Otherwise, the alliance would lose a lot of market share in Asia (though Cathay would still be a member). The loss of JAL would result in oneworld ceding the domestic Japanese market to SkyTeam (if JAL joined them) and Star (where ANA is a member).

Of course, American also wants JAL to stay in so the two carriers can seek anti-trust immunity, assuming that the Japanese and U.S. governments make progress on a proposed Open Skies agreement.

It’ll be interesting to see how this one develops, but it will probably take awhile for everything to sort itself out here.