ABSTRACT
The airline sector has a long history of working in partnership, exemplified by the IATA annual conferences and bilateral agreements. Under the auspices of IATA, on a global scale, a tradition of cooperation between airlines was built up, and on individual routes cooperation has commonly included revenue pooling agreements between the carriers operating a route. In recent years, airlines have formed alliances for fear of being left behind, and the stage has now been reached where the international airline sector has coalesced into three large alliance groupings: the Star Alliance, Oneworld Alliance and SkyTeam Alliance. Each of the alliances includes one of the large American so-called legacy airlines. A number of reasons have been forwarded for Emirates not joining one of the global airline alliances. The main reason cited is usually that freedom of action is compromised because of the common alliance goals imposed that mainly serve the interests of the alliance founders or smaller airlines.
