IAG CEO Willie Walsh has revealed he personally approached Emirates Airlines’ president Tim Clark about joining the Oneworld alliance but the Dubai-based airline chief declined his offer.
“I was very keen for Oneworld to embrace one of the Middle East big three. If I’m honest not everybody was enthusiastic about it but we eventually got to a point where everybody agreed it was the right thing to do,” Walsh told Arabian Business in an interview in London.
“I spoke to [Emirates Airlines president] Tim Clark to understand whether he was interested in joining an alliance. He had always said publically, clearly and unequivocally that he was not interested in alliance and I believed that was the case but I met with him and just checked whether that continued to be the situation. I admire Tim and I have great respect for him and what Emirates had done.”
British Airways and Iberia, which merged to form International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG) in 2011, are two of the main players in the Oneworld airline alliance, which also includes American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, Qantas, Royal Jordanian and Malaysia Airlines.
Dubai’s Emirates in 2013 signed a partnership with Oneworld’s Qantas, but Clark was clear in his response to Walsh that he was not interested in joining a formal alliance.
“Tim is very clear that he doesn’t need to be in a formal alliance and he would prefer to be able to work with airlines in various regions on a selective basis rather than committing himself and works for them. You could argue that they have sufficient scale that they don’t need to be in an alliance,” Walsh said.
In October 2013, Qatar Airways joined Oneworld and became the first Gulf carrier to be part of one of the three main aviation alliances.
“In the case of Qatar and Etihad, it was clear that there was an interest from both of them in joining an alliance and Qatar we felt was a better fit for us… Qatar was our favourite partner.
“Will Etihad join the SkyTeam alliance, given the relationships they have now with so many of the SkyTeam players? It would be strange if they didn’t because they are working with Air France/KLM and Alitalia,” Walsh added.
Last year, Clark stated he was interested in signing up to any more alliances in the near future following its partnership with Australian carrier Qantas.
“Not to my knowledge,” he said in June 2013 during the International Air Transport Association annual general meeting.
Clark conceded it had sparked a new direction in airline partnerships towards bilateral agreements rather than global groups such as One World and Star Alliance.
“The arrangement/partnership we have with Qantas [is] a reflection of the recognition among certain carriers, not necessarily alliance orientated, that things are changing a little bit, that a new alliance needs to take place,” he said.
“I’m not necessarily talking about a new order but I’m talking about a simple recognition of the fact that things have changed and we need to adjust.”
The full exclusive interview with Willie Walsh will be printed in Arabian Business later this month.
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