Middle East airlines to miss out on alliances

Middle East airlines will be excluded from industry alliances for the foreseeable future, with the three key industry groupings saying the region's small population make alliances uneconomic.

Royal Jordanian, which joined the Oneworld Alliance in May, is set to remain the Middle East's sole representative in the three main groupings - Oneworld, SkyTeam and Star Alliance - despite the spiralling growth of air travel in the region.

At the annual general meeting of the International Air Transport Association in Vancouver, Canada, executives from member companies of both Oneworld and SkyTeam ruled out the possibility of recruiting Middle East carriers. Star Alliance has also kept away from the region.

'Our aim is not to be the biggest alliance but the most profitable, and the Middle East does not bring a large enough domestic market,' said Leo van Wijk, vice-chairman of Air France-KLM, at an event hosted by SkyTeam. 'The costs to current members of bringing in new companies outweigh the potential revenues.'

A KLM spokesman says SkyTeam has been in talks with Middle East Airlines for some time with a view to making the Lebanese carrier an associate member.

'I do not know if it is actually going to happen and we are not speaking to any other Middle East carriers,' he says. 'The only exceptions to this would be the large Gulf airlines such as Emirates and Qatar Airways, but they have consistently said they are not interested in joining an alliance.'

Other SkyTeam members include Alitalia, Continental Airlines, Delta and Aeroflot. The Oneworld alliance has eight airlines, including BA, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, while the Star Alliance includes of Lufthansa, South African Airways and Air New Zealand.