OneWorld Partners May Team Up for JAL Offer

[Arthur T]

Quoted from The Street

Oneworld Partners May Team For JAL Offer

American Airlines plans to team up with other members of the Oneworld alliance to recapitalize money-losing Japan Airlines and fend off a rival offer from Delta Air Lines(DAL Quote), a report says.

The proposal, which would include a capital injection from American Airlines, is aimed at thwarting Delta, which also is in talks to invest in Oneworld partner JAL, Reuters reports.
Executives from American Airlines, British Airways (BAY Quote) and Qantas met with executives at JAL this week and told them of their plans to put together a joint offer, Reuters reports, citing two people with direct knowledge of the talks.

Delta is a member of the rival SkyTeam alliance. Removing JAL from Oneworld would leave that partnership without a Japanese carrier, Reuters notes.

TheStreet.com reported earlier this week that the partners in the Oneworld alliance were considering investing in JAL.

Financially troubled JAL is seeking to restructure and to raise funding from banks, investment funds and others including airlines. It wants about $300 million to $500 million from an airline partner or partners, as a share of the $2.7 billion it reportedly needs, TheStreet.com reported.

-- Reported by Joseph Woelfel in New York .

http://www.thestreet.com/story/10600...jal-offer.html

It seems OneWorld doesn't want JL to leave, hence they will lose a strong connection base between Asia and Japan. Hopefully after the deal was made, OW can keep JL in the alliance and probably can start something like NW for JL's International Service.

Furthermore, if QF got successfully into the deal perhaps QF can help JL to start up something like JetStar Japan to operate some marginal routes from Japan to retain their market share?