Originally Posted by
gloopy
There's never going to be "one list" though. We're not ever going to blend all the regionals (let alone Alaska or whoever, not to mention AF/KLM/China/Brazil/Aeromexico/Korean/etc) into one master list.
I appreciate your ideology but we need real JV metrics that will work for us and protect us from all the "we didn't think they'd do that" stuff. If they "can" they WILL.
I only mean to state one list within an airline's brand. I think we are already moving that direction and truly effective union leadership could achieve that end state goal in two or three bargaining cycles. Again, to get to no DCI we must transition through less DCI.
JV's are another thing altogether. Joint Ventures, in their most evolved state, are mergers. Often there are regulatory and certification barriers which would prevent an actual list merger.
JV's are economically far superior to marketing agreements like SkyTeam. JV partners are truly partners who can act together to restrain capacity and drive up prices. Figure that's worth 15% to 20% top line revenue (or so) unless a competitor enters the mix and queers the arrangement.
The best tool yet devised is a production balance. We could do much better proactively managing for compliance.