Is Delta Oneworld or Star Alliance?

Which airline alliance does Delta belong to?

Operating a highly evolved worldwide network of flights and managing significant hub airports in various cities like Atlanta, Detroit, and Minneapolis, Delta Airlines is one of the "Big Three" heritage airlines inside the United States. But unlike American Airlines and United Airlines, which are connected to the Oneworld and Star Alliance worldwide airline alliances, respectively, Delta is not a member of any of these significant alliances.

Oneworld and Star Alliance

Two of the three worldwide airline alliances with substantial geographic coverage are Oneworld and Star Alliance. Established in 1999, Oneworld is a worldwide airline alliance including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, and Qantas Airways among others as basic members. Among the 14 full members it now boasts—some of the biggest airlines worldwide—British Airlines, Iberian, and Japan Airlines—are among them. Comprising 26 members including United Airlines, Lufthansa, Air Canada, ANA, and others, Star Alliance is larger. Comprising more than 60% of all international and transcontinental flights, United Airlines is alongside Oneworld.

Customers may accumulate and redeem points or miles—which are part of the frequent flying programs across member airlines—through these partnerships. They also aggressively plan their flights for better connectivity between the partners and provide customers reciprocal lounge access. When flying another member airline of the alliance, further benefits include the right to priority treatment for services such as check-in, baggage handling, and boarding.

What we mentioned above, brings us to our next question, which is: why Delta is not a member of Oneworld or Star Alliance?

In 1997, when Star Alliance was still in the process of being created, through the initiation of core members United Airlines, Lufthansa, Air Canada, SAS and Thai Airways, Delta seemed to have expressed interest in becoming a part of this. However, its application was denied, presumably because Star Alliance did not think that Delta was a full-service carrier of sufficient quality for its brand image.

During the 2000s, when the airline industry in the USA had become highly consolidated, with six major players being American, United, Delta, Northwest, Continental, and US Airways (later the Big Three plus two), Delta again tried to become a member of the Star Alliance after it merged with Northwest Airlines in 2008. This was again unfruitful, as the competitor, United Airlines, heavily resisted Delta’s admission to the club.

At some point, there were also reported negotiations between Delta and Oneworld Alliance, but Delta and Oneworld Alliance could not come to some sort of agreement. The official reasons cited by some include the perceived lack of strategic benefits in allying with Oneworld members that already belong to the alliance, including American Airlines, which perhaps had no interest in strengthening a key competitor.

The SkyTeam Alliance

Delta was rejected by Star Alliance and Oneworld and thus, in the year 2000, formed its global airline alliance, known as SkyTeam. Initially, SkyTeam consisted of Delta and three other airlines: Aeromexico, Air France, and Korea Air. Today it has 19 members and it is considered one of the three biggest global alliances, along with Oneworld and Star Alliance.

I would like to highlight that the key members of the SkyTeam, such as Delta, Air France-KLM, and China Eastern, will offer a strong transatlantic and transpacific connection as well as a dense network of the European, Latin American, and Chinese markets. However, due to the fewer number of routes and the smaller number of premium brand airlines in its kitty, some frequent flyers like Star Alliance and Oneworld perceive the SkyTeam as having limitations.

However, most global network airlines of the world are affiliated to any of the three alliances and although Delta could have considered affiliation to Oneworld or Star Alliance, which seems difficult to join anyway, it has stayed with SkyTeam. Delta probably gets more positive things out of being a leader of a relatively less powerful alliance than in being a follower in a more comprehensive alliance that is dominated by American and United Airlines, two of its strongest competitors in the United States.

Proposed Joint Ventures

Concerning its network development in the recent past, Delta has pursued a strategy of increasing its international footprint and connecting gap routes through strategic code-sharing and equity participation rather than joining a large global airline alliance.

transatlantic joint venture was established by Delta as it acquired a 49% interest in Virgin Atlantic in 2013. This joint venture involves all the flight routes between North America and the UK so that Delta and Virgin can work in parallel to each other the same way partners in an alliance do.

The completion of one other potential joint venture that Delta and LATAM Airlines have planned is still pending approval from regulators. This will increase Delta’s reach across Latin America, adding to the 20 percent stake the company already holds in LATAM’s holding company.

Delta is also seeking an antitrust exemption to align on a schedule and pricing with Korean Air and Air France-KLM across the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. If successful, this will add even more strength to Delta’s international connectivity without having to become a member of Star Alliance or OneWorld in the future.

Future Outlook

As far as the current events and strategies of the companies are concerned, Delta seems to have a long-term future as a member of SkyTeam, dedicating a lot of time and work to building the vision of the smaller alliance with loyal partners such as Air France-KLM. Other current strategic partnerships, such as deep code-shared and franchised joint venture partners such as Virgin Atlantic and LATAM, also position these airlines better with Delta than with the Mega alliances.

Some business clientele and frequent fliers may miss the bigger route networks and greater roster of partners that Star Alliance and Oneworld offer; however, as a member of the smaller SkyTeam, Delta appears happy to let others blaze their trail while using code-sharing joint ventures and equity investments to cover the gaps.

Thus, for the foreseeable future at least, Delta’s passengers can rest assured that there are no deep choices about airline alliances to be made. So sit back and be fully enjoyed as you become a SkyTeam member!

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