Emirates CEO Tim Clark has revealed that Emirates is in talks with American Airlines to establish codeshares on flights and extend reciprocal frequent flier benefits.

And now I understand why QANTAS had the comfort level to do so itself.

For those of you wondering if this is a precursor to Emirates joining Oneworld, I think not.  Emirates does enjoy codesharing with many airlines and it will continue to do so with both legacy and newer full service airlines.  I do not believe they see value in joining an alliance because that would be more limiting to an airline with aspirations to be a truly global airline itself.

These codeshares are about providing feed to Emirates flights and providing follow-on connecting flights to its own customers.

The real question, in my mind, is this:  Will IAG (British Airways and Iberia) see this as inspiration to do a deal itself with someone like Emirates if not Emirates itself or will Willie Walsh (CEO of IAG) resist this to the end?  I suspect the latter will be true but I think the former would be better for IAG in the long run.

Filed under: Airline News by ajax