According to a report in the Irish Independent, the Aer Lingus CEO Steve Kavanagh says they have no plans to rejoin the oneworld alliance. I call fake news on this.
The quotation says specifically, “We have no plans to join oneworld. We still have to do the business case for joining oneworld.” Well, let’s discuss this.
Look At The Language
While he specifically says there are no plans to join the alliance, it is immediately contradicted by the next sentence. Saying you still have to do the business case indicates to me there are indeed plans to join oneworld.
It is entirely possible they wish people to stop asking them about it. Since Aer Lingus was bought by IAG, owner of oneworld carriers Iberia and British Airways, the question has come up many times. It is not helped by the fact Aer Lingus used to be in the alliance.
Why Else Do I Call Fake News
Aer Lingus continue to work towards the transatlantic joint venture that British Airways and American Airlines are part of. This is also mentioned in the article by the way. The fact the joint venture includes Iberia and Finnair and all four of them are oneworld alliance airlines is partly why I called fake news.
Benefits For All
Frequent flyer programmes are a great thing for consumers. Connecting the UK regions and Europe to the USA through Dublin is currently the strategy at Aer Lingus. I would argue more people would choose the airline – especially in the UK – if they were a member of oneworld.
A lot of people who are members of loyalty programmes actually stick to the carriers they earn points with. Since there are a lot of oneworld frequent flyers in the UK and Ireland, it would make sense to grab this part of the market.
Overall Thoughts
While it may or may not be fake news, the above is what I believe. When you keep an eye on specific businesses out of sheer interest, you get a knack for reading between the lines.
From a product and service perspective, Aer Lingus would fit the alliance very well. The fact they continue to open up niche US cities such as Hartford successfully shows they are on the right track. Joining oneworld would be a natural fit.
Do you know more about this or maybe have a different opinion? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Featured image by Maarten Visser via Wikimedia Commons.
Joint venture tails image via British Airways.
Your forgetting the Virgin Atlantic has a JV w/ delta to the USA and with the Skyteam on tpac routes
Thank you for letting me know!
Virgin Atlantic is unaligned but is still part of the Delta/SkyTeam Atlantic JV
Well, that’s interesting! Thanks for the heads up!