ABSTRACT
Generallyspeaking,airlinealliancesinthepasthavehadapoorrecordofsuccess. Theyhavebeenfoundunstableandhaveoftenlastedrelativelyshorttimes. 1Inthe mid-1990sitwasestimatedthatlessthanone-thirdoftheinternationalalliancesin theairlineindustryhadbeensuccessful.2ResearchbytheLaredGroupindicatedin 1997that55percentofairlinealliancesdisintegratewithinthreeyears.3These findingsare,however,notmuchdifferentfromotherindustries;researchby AndersenConsultingindicatedthatsome60percentofalliancesinvarious industrieshavealreadyfailedorareplaguedbyunder-performance.4However,the majorairlinealliancegroupswhichhavebeenaroundforsomefiveyearsnow haveexperiencedarelativelysteadygrowth.
