BRITISH Midland has taken its first step towards joining the Star Alliance after it agreed to start codesharing on all of Lufthansa’s UKroutes later this year.
Lufthansa chairman and chief executive Jurgen Weber said British Midland will codeshare on the German carrier’s UKroutes by the fourth quarter of this year.
“The British Midland joint venture is on a significant amount of flights,” he said.
“This is the first step forward towards British Midland joining Star Alliance. Remember SAS owns 40% of British Midland.”
Weber revealed Star Alliance carriers would arrange suitable compensation to British Midland if it joined the group.
The compensation would be for other codesharing agreements the UKairline would have to give up. It currently works closely with 20 global airlines including Star Alliance members. Weber said Lufthansa would still have an aircraft presence in the UK, but would be able to free up some aircraft to serve other routes.
United Airlines chairman and chief executive Gerry Greenwald British Midland would have to drop its codeshare agreement with American Airlines to join the alliance.