Starlux reportedly interested in joining the oneworld airline alliance

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• Danny says:

  19 Jun19 June 03:22

  There were rumours that Cathay probably used it’s veto before to prevent a near neighbour joining oneworld…

  • SH says:

    19 Jun19 June 08:40

    It looked for a while like China Southern was gearing up to make a play for oneworld membership; there were some BA codeshares announced, and really it doesn’t make sense for both China Southern and China Eastern to both be in Skyteam.

    But China Southern joining oneworld would put two hubs next to one another: CAN and HKG. China Southern is also significantly cheaper than Cathay Pacific in my experience, partly as it does not have appeal to an international customer base and is focused primarily on moving the Chinese diaspora around the world at a low cost connecting through CAN.

    Makes sense that CX wouldn’t want a competitor just across the way from them.

  • QFFlyer says:

    21 Jun21 June 02:11

    Hmm, maybe they could become QF partners, like everyone else in the region? QR did it with VA, which gives us the unusual ability to use Avios, Velocity and QFF points (although the latter is a moot point, given QF’s limited access to QR availability) to book on QR.

• Rizz says:

  19 Jun19 June 03:56

  There are also recurring rumors that CX would be leaving OW… Air China (*A) is a 30% shareholder in CX. Would be interesting to see a reshuffle in the region. CX, while a founding member of oneworld, is a shadow of its former self.

  • LittleNick says:

    19 Jun19 June 04:20

    Would hate to see CX leave oneworld and honestly just hope it’s a nonsense rumour, however I struggle to see them allowing Starlux into Oneworld

    • Phillip says:

      19 Jun19 June 06:12

      I struggle to see CX being that concerned about competition from Starlux to be honest. CX’s HKG-TPE route is a shadow of its former self and I really think they had bigger issues to deal with than worry about Starlix.

      • Graeme says:

        19 Jun19 June 06:24

        I can see Starlux taking SE Asia – US traffic from CX as they grow

        • Phillip says:

          19 Jun19 June 06:28

          Just noticed my typo! 😉

          Oh yes, I can definitely see them growing and being a strong CX competitor, but CX has work to do to regain overall traffic which they would have lost with or without Starlux. Starlux being in OneWorld doesn’t stop them taking traffic away from Cathay.

        • Phillip says:

          19 Jun19 June 06:29

          or not as the case may be.

    • SH says:

      19 Jun19 June 08:44

      There have been rumours of this for a long time – it seems primarily driven by the Air China shareholding – and like you I hope it isn’t true, as CX I feel brings a lot to oneworld not just practically but in an intangible sense as well.

      While the Swire family retains a controlling share in CX and probably could not be pressured by Air China to leave oneworld and join *A, I’d wager that Air China’s 30% share probably could be used in more a political sense to force CX to veto the Taiwanese Starlux’s application for oneworld membership.

• Phillip says:

  19 Jun19 June 06:25

  Definitely impressively speedy retrofit from Finnair – I guess also helped by an overall reduced aircraft utilisation following Russian airspace closure?

  • SH says:

    19 Jun19 June 08:33

    Also perhaps that since the seat doesn’t recline, it is less complex to produce and could be manufactured more quickly?

    • riku says:

      19 Jun19 June 11:42

      The new seat is lighter than the old one because there are far fewer electric motors. So they had the incentive of the fuel savings to hurry them along, rather than just hope passengers would be attracted to a new style of seat like most other airlines doing a seat swap.

• Phillip says:

  19 Jun19 June 06:31

  BA’s G-ZBJA retrofitted 787-8 never made it to Heathrow to operate the planned routes last weekend. Still at Cardiff!

  • Rhys says:

    19 Jun19 June 08:36

    Yep, appears delayed.

    • Phillip says:

      19 Jun19 June 21:19

      And having just said that, it now seems to be scheduled to go to Delhi tomorrow as BA257!

      • Phillip says:

        20 Jun20 June 05:58

        Now changed to BA171 to Pittsburgh.

• Dawn says:

  19 Jun19 June 07:32

  After using Finnair en route back from Doha this year, I will certainly be looking to use them more. I really enjoyed the new seat, plus the privacy it affords. Even without a door, it was far more private than Qatar’s A380 that I flew from Perth to Doha.

  • Charles Martel says:

    19 Jun19 June 22:00

    I enjoyed the new seat on a ARN-DOH flight in January. I preferred the service on Finnair over Qatar too, which feels a bit false and over the top to me.

• Jonathon says:

  19 Jun19 June 07:42

  One World need to calm down for a bit.

  • LittleNick says:

    19 Jun19 June 18:12

    Why? They’re the smallest of the three airline alliances? They should be adding more members

• Lee says:

  19 Jun19 June 08:03

  I was in Helsinki last week and got to use the new lounge. It is fantastic. Food and Drinks great. Service at the table they have great waiters and a very wide selection. Ba’s offering compares very poorly… but that is not much said.
  And they have a nice sauna inside that lounge as well!

  • WearyTraveller says:

    19 Jun19 June 10:30

    That lounge is only accessible if you’re OneWorld Emerald. Their other regular business lounge accessible by everyone flying business is pretty poor in comparison, however still much better than the abysmal BA business and ‘first class’ lounge.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      19 Jun19 June 10:59

      Much more impressive than the equivalent BA gold lounge which is the original point. Both are for OW Emeralds.

    • Alex Sm says:

      22 Jun22 June 08:46

      Even Finnair ordinary lounge with Marimekko designs and nice food / drink is way ahead of BA lounges which are a travesty

  • Harry T says:

    19 Jun19 June 11:13

    Both lounges poop on BA’s.

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

    19 Jun19 June 16:18

    So you were in the non Schengen Platinum Wing?

    Which isn’t actually a new lounge

    The lounge @Rhys was referring to is the new Schengen lounge. Which isn’t due to open until 1st July. And won’t have anything like waiter service.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      19 Jun19 June 16:45

      It’ll still be infinitely better than LHR

    • Phillip says:

      19 Jun19 June 19:45

      They turf you out of the Platinum wing by 17:30 when it closes, so it’s the Business Class lounge only after that.

• Andy says:

  19 Jun19 June 08:35

  Impressive from Finnair. Perhaps the good old “supply chain issues” is just a handy excuse to drag your feet

  • Rhys says:

    19 Jun19 June 08:37

    There are genuine issues. Finnair’s AirLounge does benefit from a reduction in moving parts and small fleet. 25 aircraft over two years is only 12.5 planes per year.

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

      19 Jun19 June 17:28

      So one a month.

      Which is about the same rate as BA installing CS?

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