Bangkok Airways Sees No Upside To Airline Alliances

7th May 2015

Bangkok Airways (BA) has been brushing off alliances with global airlines revealing that the company sees no benefit at all if it joins any of these groups.

Membership fees alone would cost a member-airline more than US$700,000 annually. With operating expenses reaching a level of US$2.5 Million annually, the airline company isn't buying the idea of shelling out additional funds for fees this huge.

International alliances, the likes of Oneworld, SkyTeam, Star Alliance strictly prohibit member airlines to engage in business with non-member airlines. This prohibition

is another turn off for BA.

One of the senior officers of BA expressed frustration on both the fees and prohibitions and said that the company would be in a better position if it disassociates itself with such groups.

While these two reasons have thwarted any possibility for BA to join in, the impact on the company's code sharing deals with some airlines is reportedly the foremost reason why it is shying away from alliances.

Joining such alliances would prevent BA from pursuing its long drawn out plan of increasing code sharing deals with other airline companies as these types of deals are prohibited among member airlines.

Right now, BA is maintaining code sharing arrangements with more than a dozen airline companies, some of which are members of different airline alliances.

These arrangements have been part of BA's growth initiatives. Presently, BA conducts flights over 11 destinations locally and another 13 to other countries.

Meanwhile, Emirates has long been a non-believer in airline alliances and has since been skeptic about the merits they present.

For Tim Clark, Emirates' president, such alliances are a thing of the past, citing that clients

look for value for money rather than points or miles earned. Emirates' ideas on the matter may have had impact on BA's position on airline alliances.

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