Yeah the sickle symbol is the reason behind the change. To re-brand itself as a western orientated airline it had to get rid of an image, which did not enforce Russia’s new political and social image.

Personally I think it is a symbol of a well-respected airline who before the break up of the USSR, was the worlds biggest airline. It is sad to see it go, however, if Aeroflot wants a new image then ridding itself of any former symbols is the way to go about. Thus, the media (who created a bad perception of Aeroflot) can no longer criticise it but rather praise it as a western standard airline.

The airline has a long way to go to reach their competitors standards but a new western fleet and a new image, which is comparable to any other world airline, is the way to go about it. My only hope is that the new style is made uniform throughout the network as the image Aeroflot wants to shed is present mainly on their domestic and CIS services rather than the western services. However, I would hope they could keep their “Uniquely Russian” status.

Mongu,
I will try and explain what I mean to the best of my ability, I am not exactly aware of the major components of an ATI, but here it goes.

Swiss was granted ATI with AA in November of last year I gather. Now this means that AA and Swiss can codeshare on the North American routes and have unrestricted expansion of operations on North Atlantic routes under the Open Sky Agreement Switzerland has. Also, it enables the two airlines to co-ordinate their fares and launch joint marketing initiatives.

Now why is BA not happy with Swiss joining Oneworld? Well because we have to remember that BA couldn’t get ATI with AA. This means that Swiss has an advantage over BA: With AA it can develop its traffic across the Atlantic and take transfer passengers of BA at LHR to ZRH, which is a much less troublesome airport for connecting. Also, Swiss has no obstacles sitting in its track like BA who would find heavy penalties if it grew in partnership with AA. In the contrary, Swiss has room to grow. So, in my opinion BA has much more to lose if Swiss were to join Oneworld.

Yeah I agree Swiss should join Oneworld. Bigger link up in Central Europe and they could ease conjestion at Heathrow by feeding through some of their operations down to Zurich.

I think the big thing is that American would like BA to push another European airline into Oneworld so that they can develop and integrate their relationship with Swiss through antitrust immunity.