Westjet, the second largest airline in Canada, is holding talks to join the Oneworld Alliance. The Oneworld Alliance consists of American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Qantas, Lan, Finnair and Iberian. Aer Lingus is scheduled to leave the alliance later this season, but new members, Malev Hungarian Airlines, Royal Jordanian, and Japan Airlines will be entering.
As reported by The Globe and Mail, Oneworld would help Westjet grow beyond its regional status. Air Canada, Westjet’s competitor, receives traffic from its partners in a competing alliance, the Star Alliance. It’s members include Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana, Austrian, British Midland(BMI), Lot Polish, Lufthansa, Scandinavian, Singapore, South African, Spanair, Swiss, Tap Portugal, Thai, United, USAirways, and Varig.
As the airline list above indicates, while Oneworld has flights into Canada, it has no distribution network within Canada itself through a Canadian carrier. With Air Canada working with Star, that leaves the Number Two airline for Oneworld to set its sights on. Westjet could end up with a very lucrative arrangement.
Westjet is a single-class carrier, a contrast to Oneworld carriers, who generally offer business class on their aircraft. To their credit, their inflight product includes inflight entertainment on a majority of flights, a paid snack bar, and a flight consisting entirely of Boeing 737s of varying configurations. They have the newest fleet in North America, with the average aircraft age at two years.
Westjet’s new computer reservations system, scheduled to be active next year, would make it possible for Westjet to handle the interline bookings necessary to work within an Alliance.