Mongu, the rumour that comes up in Switzerland every time someone asks why Swiss isn’t in oneworld yet is that BA aren’t overly keen in having the extra major alliance hub in Zürich so close to Heathrow…
When you compare to the other major oneworld hubs in Europe, Dublin is really just a gateway to half a dozen Eastern US Seaboard destinations, Madrid/Barcelona are only really a gateway to South America (bearing in mind neither Iberia nor Aer Lingus operate to Asia at all), and Helsinki, too, is a relatively small hub.
Whether there’s any truth or not in ZRH being too close for BA’s liking, you can see certain advantages of using ZRH as a transit point for connecting oneworld passengers… decent(ish) networks, both within Europe, and longhaul; a more central location for European pax; just two terminals, a five minute moving walkway apart, rather than 4, two of which need busses to get anywhere near, etc, etc.
But, as the article says, Swiss already codeshares with all the major oneworld partners…
BA on the BSL-LHR flights,
AA on flights from ZRH to the states (both on LX flights, and the AA flights to JFK and DFW), and connections within the States, and within Europe
EI on ZRH-DUB, and DUB-LCY, LCY-ZRH, LCY-BSL and LCY-GVA flights
QF, as you say on flights to SYD
AY on the ZRH-HEL route
IB, on flights to Spain (I think?)
So, they’re involved with all the current oneworld members, except Cathay Pacific (LX already has a daily MD-11 flight from ZRH to HK, so they don’t nescessarily need extra capacity) and Lan Chile (LX only have two flights to South America… ZRH-SAO-BUE (5x a week) and ZRH-SAO-RIO (the other two days), so, again, no great need for connections.)
So, yes, I see them joining sooner or later, either way… especially now that they’ve had to lower their expectations as to how feasible making LX a truly major airline is.
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