Changes are afoot at each of the global airline alliances – Oneworld, Star Alliance and SkyTeam.
Over the coming period, three airlines are set to join Oneworld. Meanwhile, ITA Airways has just left SkyTeam and intends to join Star Alliance in 2026.
It comes after SAS switched in September 2024 from Star Alliance to SkyTeam and Czech Airlines left SkyTeam in October 2024.
With some airlines switching alliances, there have even been a few status match offers lately to lure in flyers who would rather not make the switch. We expect to see even more of these over the next year.
Here’s what you need to know about the recent and upcoming changes to the global airline alliances…
Contents
Fiji Airways becoming a full Oneworld member in March 2025
After becoming the first Oneworld Connect member in 2018, Fiji Airways will finally upgrade to full Oneworld alliance membership on 31 March 2025.
That’s great news for Australians as Fiji Airways serves five Australian cities with flights to Nadi – with Cairns soon to become the sixth – and beyond to airports in the Pacific, North America and Asia.
At the same time, it will also adopt American Airlines AAdvantage as its loyalty program.
The current Oneworld Connect arrangement has been lacklustre and often confusing, so this will be a welcome change.
Even before Fiji Airways officially becomes a full Oneworld member, Qantas is already honouring the Oneworld lounge access benefits that will officially apply from 31 March 2025.
Oman Air joining Oneworld in June 2025
After Fiji Airways, Oman Air will be the next airline to join the Oneworld alliance on 30 June 2025.
In the lead-up to this, Qantas Frequent Flyer has already launched a partnership with the Muscat-based airline. You can redeem Qantas points to fly with Oman Air now.
Hawaiian Airlines will join Oneworld in 2026
Boosting Oneworld’s presence in the Pacific even further, Hawaiian Airlines will join Oneworld in 2026. This is happening as a result of Hawaiian Airlines merging with existing Oneworld member Alaska Airlines, although the two brands will remain separate.
According to the airline, Hawaiian will join Oneworld “in conjunction with Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines reaching a single passenger service system”, something that will take around another year to fully complete.
In the meantime, Qantas has revealed that it intends to offer Classic Reward redemptions on Hawaiian Airlines as part of a frequent flyer partnership that it will launch in October 2025.
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Once Qantas and Hawaiian Airlines officially announce this, it seems likely that Velocity’s partnership with Hawaiian Airlines would end.
ITA Airways is switching from SkyTeam to Star Alliance
The Lufthansa Group is currently in the process of buying Italian flag carrier ITA Airways (formerly Alitalia). Lufthansa is a key member of Star Alliance, so it’s no surprise that ITA Airways will now also become a Star Alliance member.
As part of this process, ITA Airways suddenly announced earlier this month that it was leaving SkyTeam, effective immediately. It’s now in a transition period which will end on 30 April 2025, during which only some SkyTeam partners will offer benefits to ITA Airways frequent flyers. (At least ITA Volare members will already be somewhat used to that!)
Lufthansa Group has announced that ITA Airways will join Star Alliance in 2026. It will be the first new airline to join Star Alliance in around a decade.
Star is the largest of the global alliances, with the most member airlines and highest number of flights. But, after an initial growth phase, its focus in recent years has been on improving the customer experience rather than adding more members.
SAS switched from Star Alliance to SkyTeam in 2024
After being bought out by a consortium including Air France-KLM Group, Scandinavian airline SAS left Star Alliance and instead joined SkyTeam on 1 September 2024.
Shortly after this happened, SAS also launched a creative “EuroBonus Millionaire” promotion, offering members one million EuroBonus miles if they flew with 15 SkyTeam airlines by the end of 2024. Over 900 people actually did this.
Initially, the change to SkyTeam somewhat screwed over EuroBonus members who fly domestically within Sweden and Norway, as SkyTeam Elite Plus status does not currently provide lounge access on domestic itineraries. But this will change on 1 April 2025.
Czech Airlines left SkyTeam in October 2024
Former SkyTeam member Czech Airlines left the alliance on 26 October 2024. Unfortunately, the reason was that it also ceased operations entirely.
Czech Airlines was the world’s fifth-oldest airline, having celebrated its 100th anniversary last year. But since the pandemic, the airline had only been flying a small handful of routes before finally handing over its few remaining routes to Czech budget airline Smartwings.
Other airlines have expressed interest in joining Oneworld
In the coming years, Qatar Airways may also sponsor RwandAir to join the Oneworld alliance – likely as a Oneworld Connect member.
Taiwan’s Starlux and MIAT Mongolian Airlines have also expressed their desire to join Oneworld.
Where Oneworld really needs a new member, though, is South America. Since LATAM Airlines left the alliance in 2020, there have been no Oneworld airlines based in South America at all.
Unfortunately, there are no obvious candidates as LATAM Airlines is tied up with Delta, and the other major network carriers – avianca, Copa Airlines and Aerolíneas Argentinas – are already in other alliances.
Brazil’s GOL Airlines could be a useful addition, and already has a strong partnership with American Airlines. But GOL is primarily a low-cost airline, so alliance membership might not make sense for it. And it’s probably going to be pretty busy over the coming years as it merges with Azul, another Brazilian airline.
Star Alliance could lose Asiana Airlines
Asiana Airlines, based in Korea, has been a long-standing member of Star Alliance. But it’s currently in the process of merging with SkyTeam’s Korean Air. Once this happens, the Asiana brand will disappear and the airline will no longer be part of Star Alliance as it will be absorbed into Korean Air.
Which other airlines could join an alliance?
There’s always lots of speculation about other airlines potentially joining an alliance. For example, there have been rumours for years that China Southern could seek to join Oneworld – although Cathay Pacific might block this. China Southern left SkyTeam at the end of 2018.
And I’ve lost count of the number of times people have suggested Virgin Australia should join Star Alliance.
For what it’s worth, I think Virgin Australia would make a great addition to Star Alliance. Any alliance membership would also make Velocity Frequent Flyer significantly more attractive to genuine frequent flyers, and would help to make Virgin Australia much more competitive against Qantas.
Alas, for now, Virgin seems to be happy enough with its complicated bilateral partnership structure – which arguably works much better for Velocity than it does for its members. I think this is unlikely to change until at least such time that Bain Capital sells its ownership stake in the airline.
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