Summary airBaltic won't join an alliance to protect its partnerships. Existing codeshare partners contribute 12% of the airline's revenue. Changing alliances, like SAS, impacts connectivity & loyalty programs.
airBaltic has no plans to seek membership of an airline alliance. During the recent Farnborough Airshow, the airline’s CEO, Martin Gauss, explained why to Simple Flying during a sideline interview. Most of the world’s major airlines are a member of one of the big three airline alliances.
These are oneworld , SkyTeam , and Star Alliance . Membership of these “clubs” can be seen as a status symbol and can unlock additional partnerships for an airline. However, some airlines aren’t so interested in joining an alliance, as Gauss explained.
Alliance membership would kill partnerships Explaining his reasons for not wanting to join an alliance, Gauss clarified that such a decision could kill off many of the airBaltic's current partnerships, “As the Baltics are not served by the other [carriers] to the extent we do we believe its better to stay our of an alliance.” “We have 24 codeshare partners today. They deliver around 12% of our total revenues which is a significant number.
If we go into an alliance that would change as we are working with [airlines from] all alliances, and all of them benefit from airBaltic being the one which serves the Baltics.” Gauss expanded, commenting, “Today we offer a connectivity for the Baltics with more than 300 megacities ar.