From Bloomberg:
US Airways Group Inc., the dominant carrier at Philadelphia International Airport, and Air China may be invited to join the Star Alliance, the largest grouping of airlines, Deutsche Lufthansa AG, a founding member, said yesterday.

US Airways, which emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization March 31, applied for membership in Star when it formed a marketing and service partnership last year with United Airlines, also a founding member of the alliance.

Star and similar alliances allow carriers to sell tickets on one another’s flights. The carriers also can display schedules and fares in travel-agency and Internet reservation systems and make it appear that all the flights on a route are offered by all airlines in the alliance.

The partnerships are designed to help travelers going from, say, Indianapolis, to Istanbul, Turkey. US Airways could issue a single ticket, with the passenger transferring through its hub in Philadelphia to another US Airways flight to Frankfurt, where Lufthansa would pick up the passenger for the flight to Turkey.

The chief executive officers of the current 16 Star Alliance members are likely to discuss whether to invite US Airways and Air China at a meeting in Washington on May 30, said a Lufthansa spokeswoman, Sandra Kraft. There may not be a decision at the meeting, she said.

Wolfgang Mayrhuber, the chief executive-designate of Lufthansa, “has said it would make sense for US Airways to join Star Alliance, as their network is complementary to that of United,” Kraft said. “But it’s not up to any one airline to make such a decision,” she said.

United has hubs in Denver and Chicago, while US Airways has hubs in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Charlotte, N.C.

Kraft said Lufthansa had been sharing routes with Air China, China’s largest carrier, for more than two years, and that the airline would be a good partner.