30 July 2010

Air Berlin + OneWorld = What?


Like many other people, I went "Hub?" with the announcement of Air Berlin joining Oneworld.

I recognize that many people think that AB is a LCC carrier but it has been Hybrid for a long time and fails the classic categorizations - FF Program, Connections, GDS Participation, Full Service Flights, Premium Service etc etc. It does indeed operate 3 separate business models:
LCC like,
Regular/network services,
Charter carrier.

For a detailed look - go to Anan.Aero who has done a nice job in assessing the move.

So I can only think of two reasons.

Reason A - OneWorld wants a PR story as its a lite news week after Farnborough.

Reason B - OneWorld wants to tweak the nose of the Kaiser (aka LH).

Let me know if you can think of another reason

Cheers

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