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still evident where American airlines tend to lag behind the superior service levels offered by
European and especially Asian airlines (Weber and Sparks 2004). Although passengers are able to
benefi t from access to multiple lounges and seamless frequent fl yer programmes, to date there is
limited evidence of a single check-in on the horizon; while talk of the 'global consumer' and
'global traveller' abounds, integration to date primarily relates to standardization or procurement,
IT systems, facilities and marketing with pressure, especially in the area of HRM to maintain
differentiated strategies. Thus, although considerable benefi ts are to be achieved via economies
of scale and reduced costs through global co-ordination, there remains a reluctance to deviate
too much from the respective political forces of each airline, their governmental demands and
individual cultural needs (Holtbrügge
et al
. 2006). One wonders also whether trust is as
widespread across all alliances as one would have us believe with the constant fear of competitive
individual actions always at the back of one's mind.
One notable impact of the development and continued growth of international airline
alliances is on the changing relationship between airlines and airports (Dennis 2005). Whereas
'point-to-point' route networks used to dominate, 'hub-and-spoke' networks represent the
engines that drive the alliances with the major hubs critical in feeding long-haul fl ights as well
as leveraging considerable competitive advantage to those airports that serve as the major hubs
(Albers, Koch and Ruff 2005). In fact, the vast majority of the increased traffi c generated by
international airline alliances is on hub-to-hub routes with these routes contributing signifi cantly
to increased load factors, revenue and profi t. Although of great benefi t to 'hub' airports, such
rationalization brings with it severe consequences for those marginalized non-hub airports
(Dennis 2005).
As with collaboration generally, vertical and technology-based alliances also exist. In the
context of international airline alliances, these include vertical linkages with companies in the
supply chain (such as car rental companies, hotels and fi nancial services providers) and technology-
driven relationships with providers of maintenance and safety products and services. Hence, in
addition to codesharing, other alliance forms include blocked-space agreements, leasing and
franchising, computerized reservation systems, insurance and airline pooling, joint services,
baggage handling, ground maintenance and facilities sharing, and joint-marketing activity (Fyall
and Garrod 2005). The latter is particularly noteworthy as the three leading international airline
alliances have adopted different branding strategies over the years with regard to the extent to
which they market themselves as either individual airlines which are part of a globalized network
(such as in the case of Oneworld) or as a collaborative entity made up of individual airlines (as
in the case of Star Alliance). There is also the issue of multiple alliance membership with
relationship-based theories well placed to explain the network consequences of such behaviour.
Although continually lauded as highly successful, the three largest international airline
alliances represent highly complex collaborative arrangements and remain highly emergent in
nature in that lessons are continually being learned. To some commentators, the three largest
alliances serve as highly defensive and potentially damaging competitive tools to restrict market
entry (Iatrou and Alamdari 2005; Goertz and Shapiro 2012) with the benefi ts seemingly
disproportionate to the larger airlines in the collaborative groupings. The authorities are thus
continually looking at the potential elimination of fair competition across the industry while the
health of non-allied airlines is of concern in some parts of the world as the industry, through
collaboration, concentrates even further. In addition, although there are obvious cost advantages
to be gained from such collaboration, there is little evidence to suggest that cost savings are
always being passed on in the form of cheaper fares to passengers. Pitfi eld (2007: 201) is also of
the view that 'fl uctuations in traffi c and traffi c shares have more to do with the
ceteris paribus
conditions than with alliance formation and development, despite the expectations of airlines'.
