Editorial

Quantity v Quality

Hardly a week goes by without at least one of the world’s three global airline alliances announcing that a new airline is joining their network. When airline alliances first started, the PR blurb from each grouping was that ‘their’ alliance would create a ‘seamless travel experience for its travellers’, fast forward the clock and any fool can see that as the airline alliances expand, so too does the gap in service standards.

For example, BA/AA led Oneworld Alliance (and even here there is no way that the service levels of AA match those of BA) is accepting India’s Kingfisher Airlines into its grouping in February. Yet Kingfisher itself has some 15 of its fleet grounded due to safety issues and is reported to have lost 70 million Euro’s in the third quarter of 2011 alone!  Air India was effectively banned from joining the Lufthansa led Star Alliance last year because although a letter of intent for the Indians to join had been signed, the financial status and the safety issues surrounding the airline failed to satisfy the Star Alliance due diligence tests.

The three main airline alliances have also gathered momentum in ‘where’ they are trying to recruit partners, with the attention now turning to Africa, South America and Russia, as well as India and whilst it may be politically incorrect to say it, the service levels of the airline industry in these parts of the world generally still leave a lot to be desired. One must also remember that alliances are supposed to go beyond ease of transfer from one flight to another, the product on offer across the board is supposed to be compatible so too items like airline lounges etc. Clearly it does not need a rocket scientist to know that they are not.

Where mere mortals like ourselves may be missing the plot is in understanding the objectives of these alliances and perhaps the purpose of them. It has perhaps moved form one where they perform an extra added value facility for their existing clients, to one where the absorption into an alliance of a new airline provides the big boys with a huge potential new source market – and sod the quality.

Mark Thomas

Managing Director

HRG Bulgaria