Making wanderlust connected: Airline alliances explained
As estimated by Flightradar24, 100,000 to 130,000 air flights go around the globe daily. Meanwhile, in 2023 alone, there have been 67,300 routes covered by 1,138 airlines, which gives us a rough average number of 59 different routes per airline company. With such a modest capability for a standalone airline, how is it possible to provide so many flights and connect the whole globe with routes?
The answer to this question would be “impossible” without airline alliances.
In this guide, we analyze the concept of airline alliances, understand why they were created, define their benefits and technical processes, and get to know the three major airline alliances.
What are airline alliances?
An airline alliance is a strategic partnership in which several airlines work together to maintain their separate corporate identities and financial independence. At the same time, they grow combined route networks, share operational resources, and offer passengers unbreakable connectivity across larger geographic markets.
Alliance members coordinate flight schedules, coordinate commercial policies, and uphold consistent service standards. According to research by Gaggero, et al. Partnerships can eliminate double marginalization and lower costs through economies of scope, which in turn, enhance the quality of services they provide.
Remember not to mix up partnership vs strategic alliance. A strategic alliance is a freer collaboration in sharing route information without full financial ties, where a partnership entails deeper integration and shared resources between airlines. However, an alliance imposes one major limitation as well: one airline can only participate in one alliance at the same time.
Airlines are only permitted to join one significant alliance at a time, but they are still free to sign individual codeshare contracts with other carriers (we will discuss this in more detail later).
When United Airlines, Air Canada, Scandinavian Airlines, Lufthansa, and Thai Airways established Star Alliance in 1997, the era of global alliances officially began. With 26 members, Star Alliance is currently the biggest alliance in the world. Since the late 1980s, these collaborations have progressively expanded. Another global-scale alliance, Oneworld, was founded by American Airlines and British Airways in 1999, and SkyTeam was founded by Delta Air Lines and Air France in 2000.
According to research by Dimanche et al., modern "exogamic" mega-alliances that unite carriers with complementary geographic networks have been replacing the traditional "endogamic" partnerships, in which similar airlines worked together on particular tasks. The three main alliances are still growing today: for instance, Fiji Airways joined Oneworld in 2025, while Star Alliance is still the biggest one.
We will break down the main difference in capabilities and offerings of Star Alliance vs Oneworld, vs SkyTeam later, and now let’s focus on how alliances work in general.
How airline alliances work
The key idea that enables airlines to use their local strengths to build global networks that would be impossible for them to build on their own is geographic complementarity. For example, when a traveler books a Star Alliance flight from New York to Bangkok via Frankfurt, Thai Airways offers connectivity in Asia, Lufthansa manages the transatlantic segment, and United offers access to North America. Even though each airline retains operational control over its respective segments, smooth travel experiences are ensured in this process by revenue sharing, baggage transfer procedures, and coordinated schedules.
Alliance operations are based on code-sharing, where airlines set their flight codes on flights run by partners to make booking simple. Deeper cooperation involving shared pricing, scheduling, a variety of alliance airlines destinations, and revenue management is exemplified by joint ventures.
Technical exchange of expertise, joint procurement using combined purchasing power, and airport co-location for passenger convenience are a few examples of alliances that go beyond revenue-focused initiatives. Trichy V. Krishnan points out that to ensure coordinated strategies while preserving individual airline autonomy in core operations, decision-making must be approved by all participating airlines through alliance governance structures.
Interlining and joint ventures
Another important concept that forms the basis of airline alliances is interlining. Interlining is the basic commercial agreement between airlines to allow them to issue tickets for each other's flights on a multi-leg trip. It lets passengers buy one ticket for complex itineraries, check in once, and have their bags automatically transferred between different airlines. In case of disruptions, passengers are easily rebooked onto another flight within the interlining network.
Joint ventures are the deepest form of airline cooperation. It’s prone only to the main types of alliances - the big three that we will describe later. Airlines operate as a single entity on a route through joint ventures after receiving governmental approval. With joint ventures, the partners jointly share costs and revenue while sponsoring their flight operations. For example, when comparing Star Alliance vs. SkyTeam, the members of the first often form deeper joint ventures to compete on transatlantic and transpacific routes, according to IATA.
These kinds of arrangements allow the airlines to be rewarded with the mutual economics they share while still accomplishing their respective companies' overall business approaches with contracts that are easily terminated or renewed as deemed appropriate.
Integrations
Since earlier alliances, like the 1968 KSSU alliance between UTA, SAS, KLM, and the later addition of the Swiss Airlines alliance, which focused primarily on reducing costs of maintenance on aircraft (as stated in Šimunović et al.), the degree of cooperation of airlines has experienced a complete change. Modern alliances encompass a wide range of operational capacity, such as codesharing, frequent flyer programs, ground facilities, coordination of schedules, co-marketing, IT systems, fuel purchase, maintenance, and crew exchanges.
Modern airline alliances rely heavily on tech integration to keep member carriers' passenger experiences and operational effectiveness aligned. These include:
Common IT platforms help unify different IT systems, allowing travelers to share boarding passes, check in on common platforms, track baggage, and access lounges, and therefore enjoy a seamless travel experience.
Frequent flyer programs have made it easy for passengers to earn and redeem points on all airlines within the alliance. We will discuss them in the next section.
By leveraging codesharing technology, airlines expand their network capability without the expense of adding additional aircraft.
With real-time operational coordination systems, airlines can monitor each other's schedules, resources and make decisions on disruptions arising across their alliance network through robust flight booking APIs.
Customer engagement platforms combine payment gateways, booking systems, and travel agent partnerships to avoid potential friction in the overall travel experience.
Oneworld Alliance is a great recent case of airlines conducting a technological push, with an urgent goal to bring all 15 member airlines into a single platform before year-end. The first two airlines account for a significant portion of the integration that took place in November - Malaysia Airlines and Sri Lankan Airlines. This technological advancement demonstrates how the SkyTeam vs Oneworld competition drives innovation in customer experience platforms.
With SkyTeam achieving a remarkable 95% multi-airline check-in access worldwide with all of its member airlines, this is clearly a challenge to reduce the gap between Oneworld, SkyTeam, and Star Alliance.
Whether your company is an alliance partner or operates as a standalone airline, COAX teams can help you establish secure travel API integration to any available booking platform, ticket aggregator, or other external systems to make your offerings as robust and secure as possible.
Why airlines form alliances (and what they bring in)
Why are alliances important? There have been some economic and social factors that caused their creation. In essence, they present a response to the growing need for digital transformation in travel industry, caused by noticeable changes in global aviation.
Airlines contend with large operating expenses. In 2024, according to IATA, fuel costs represented 28.8% of the global airline industry's total expenses of about $936 billion. Alliances allow airlines to share significant expenses and risk with several partners and allow them to undertake projects that are viable from a cost perspective.
Another target was an eventual increase in coverage of the network. The limitations of route networks put boundaries on airlines’ abilities, but alliances allow carriers to provide passengers with access to a global network of hundreds of destinations. Such agreements cover both points: help airlines gain market share on routes they do not serve individually, and at the same time, improve connectivity for passengers.
This reason is connected to the previous one - airlines wanted to improve travel experiences. 80% of consumers think that experience is more important than what you get out of the overall service provided - so expectations cannot be higher. By developing coordinated schedules, lounges, frequent flyer programs, and standardizing service, alliance partnerships offer airlines the ability to provide something to remember.
Positioning yourself in the market is another benefit. Having an average passenger load factor of 83.5% in 2024 places aviation in a highly competitive environment, and the current yield trends indicate that domestic and international markets have distinct competitive dynamics. With alliances, airlines are able to join resources and pricing strategies and combine efforts to protect their market share.
Market and regulatory access is last, but not least, in the list of reasons to ally. Air service agreements are highly regulated. Alliances provide a mechanism for airlines to operate through their partners' traffic rights, avoiding regulatory restrictions, and getting a chance to still adhere to local and international regulations.
Among the main offers of an alliance is something that improves customer satisfaction and retention, and encourages travelers to take multiple flights with a company - loyalty programs.
Loyalty programs
Alliance cooperation is based on mutually linked frequent flyer programs that enable passengers to accrue and use miles on all participating airlines. Elite status recognition increases the value for devoted passengers by offering perks like priority boarding and lounge access across the network. For frequent international travelers seeking the best airline alliance to join, these reciprocal benefits across member carriers provide significant value.
There are typical benefits of alliances that come from their miles programs, apart from ticket discounts:
Priority check-in, boarding, and baggage handling.
Extra baggage allowance.
Preferred seating.
Priority waitlists and standby.
Worldwide lounge access.
Fast-track security.
Guaranteed reservations on sold-out flights.
Members of the alliance provide network-wide status recognition, reciprocal earning opportunities, and cross-redemption capabilities. Although every airline has its own loyalty program, collaborations make it easier to share benefits. For example, Air France/KLM Flying Blue miles can be redeemed for Delta flights, and United MileagePlus members can use their account to book flights with Star Alliance partners.
How it impacts customers
The results of this strategic collaboration are mostly positive for customers, with some potential drawbacks also present. Probably, the best airline alliance outcome for flyers is in terms of their enhanced experiences:
Codeshare agreements give customers access to larger route networks, allowing them to travel to places that would be impossible for a single airline to serve on its own.
Additionally, they gain from smooth communication between alliance members, which does away with the need for complicated multi-ticket bookings.
All participating airlines offer priority boarding and lounge access as reciprocal frequent flyer benefits.
Travel planning is made easier by booking a single ticket on several carriers. This is an extremely important factor to consider - research shows that future purchase intentions can be boosted to 34% if you make at least some minor efforts to improve customer experience.
Lost luggage incidents and transfer difficulties are reduced by shared baggage handling systems.
Cost savings are also among the main advantages for passengers. Alliance itineraries are 25% less expensive than similar non-aligned carrier combinations, according to research by Brueckner. The reason for it is that on overlapping routes, competition within alliance networks can result in lower fares. This alliance example shows how member airlines can maintain profitability while passengers benefit from coordinated pricing strategies.
Regarding the potential disadvantages, there is something to add as well. According to My Flyright's analysis, airlines can increase ancillary fees for services like carry-on baggage and seat selection that were previously included in base fares. Also, dominant alliance partnerships may limit consumer choice on popular international routes.
To bring your flyers a connected experience without joining any alliance, COAX provides a 15-year proven service of developing travel industry software. Through sophisticated API connections and real-time data synchronization, we improve your current infrastructure with cutting-edge solutions that expedite booking procedures, integrate loyalty programs across several carriers, and produce flawless passenger experiences.
The big 3 airlines alliances
Which airline alliance is the best to join? After we discussed the key reasons, workflows, and impacts of airline alliances, let’s describe the main representatives of this worldwide market, starting with the most monopolistic one.
Star Alliance
Founded in 1997 and headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, Star Alliance comprises 25 member airlines with a collective 17,500 daily departures and more than 1,000 lounges worldwide. Therefore, Star Alliance covers nearly 98% of the world, with 192 countries and 1,160 airports. With SAS airline alliance membership starting with 2024, and ITA Airways slated for early 2026 pending Lufthansa Group membership, this global reach is only expanding.
Purpose of creation. Star Alliance's signed promise was to deliver service to passengers traveling from yet another country in a completely connected way. It brought together some of the world's best airlines with the expressed intent of enhancing global connectivity and customer satisfaction. It was set through agreements upon service levels, coordination of operations, and enabling each airline to keep the uniqueness of its culture and services.
There are some very distinct benefits of Star Alliance:
Multiple airline itineraries on a single booking.
Arranged timing and connections.
Combined frequent flyer mile accumulation and use.
Recognition of elite status for all member airlines.
Priority services in baggage handling, boarding, and check-in.
Access to an extensive array of lounges.
Arranged round-the-world and circle-Pacific fares.
Nine staffed Connection Centers.
Transfers from one partner airline to the next are seamless.
Solutions for enterprises. Star Alliance offers a Corporate Plus program that makes international travel for business easy, with one program that covers multiple airlines. The program creates essentially a one-stop shop on how to manage business travel for your whole company, and a lot less paperwork management on the administrative side. Businesses can access first-rate European connections and improved corporate travel benefits through Swiss Air partners in the alliance. Ultimately, companies can book the lowest possible fares on individual or group tickets, and have access to greater destinations (in many cases) than booking with the separate airlines that are members of the alliance.
Online booking tools for travelers. Through the Star Alliance "Book and Fly" 24/7 system, you can book your route with just one booking process (with multiple options on dates and connections for the itinerary). The fare in this alliance’s airline reservation systems may vary based on your total mileage across the multiple member airlines and cabin choice, which, considering the individual airlines, allows the traveller to personalize their trip wherever they like. Also, Round The World ticket program allows tourists to literally fly around the globe and visit 15 cities within one connected cost-efficient route.
Frequent flyer program privileges. Using the booking engine (along with the integrated air systems of the participating airlines), a customer can search all flights, book segments in one booking for any Star Alliance family member airlines, and benefit with the Star Alliance Gold Status frequent flyer program that offers:
Priority check-in at designated counters in selected airport.
Priority baggage treatment and expeditious delivery.
Access to 1000+ airport lounges worldwide.
Priority boarding for first and business class travelers.
Extra baggage allowance on flights.
Gold Follow the path to a faster clearing process at immigration and security.
Priority placement on reservation waitlists.
Greater priority for standby situations at the airport.
In the case of travel using frequent flyer miles, the award system of Star Alliance Upgrade Awards.
All said, Star Alliance is often considered the best airline alliance, as it’s the most popular and influential option on the list.
SkyTeam
Founded in 2000, SkyTeam is headquartered in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The SkyTeam alliance has 18 member airlines, collectively serving over 1,000 destinations in 160 countries, carrying 624 million passengers per year, operating 13,600 daily departures, and with access to 750 lounges worldwide, is the youngest of the 3 major airline alliances created to date.
Purpose of creation. Four founding airlines (Aeromexico, Delta Airlines, Air France, and Korean Air) established SkyTeam to cooperate as one global entity with the goal of fostering a comprehensive world network that enhances overall passenger connectivity and ease of travel. SkyTeam is prioritizing promoting sustainable aviation fuel practices for all airlines' operations in their network and innovative service delivery practices to enhance customer experience.
Star Alliance offers significant advantages to being a participant and a user of this alliance’s services:
Extensive global network with access to over 1,000 destinations across the globe.
SkyPriority service to facilitate airport processes.
Recognition of every member's Elite and Elite Plus status.
Access to over 750 lounges around the world for eligible members.
Convenient baggage handling and airline connections.
Booking options are available globally.
Corporate meeting solutions are provided through Global Meetings.
Sustainability programs offered by airlines located in the league.
Options available for different frequent flyer programs.
Solutions for enterprises. SkyTeam offers enterprise-wide solutions to simplify corporate travel management through the key program, Global Meetings. This platform business meetings support, dedicated account management, and reward tickets for organizers, together with discounts up to 15% off for international events with 50 or more delegates from two countries.
Another corporate travel tool, SkyTeam Marine & Offshore, offers a specialized crew movement service for shipping, oil and gas, and alternative energy industries, while Corporate Connection is focused on providing unpublished fares from three to twelve member airlines to businesses based in China.
Online booking tools for travelers. SkyTeam developed a round-the-world booking tool that allows passengers to plan multi-stop trips with three to fifteen destinations with four fare tiers based on distance travelled. In addition to this tool, SkyTeam offers passengers a solution called Find Flights. The Find Flights metasearch tool integrates current flight options, schedules, and prices through the global distribution software into one platform compiled from all participating member airlines, making SkyTeam one of the best airline alliances in terms of digital solutions offered.
Frequent flyer program privileges. Another advantage for passengers is that when flying multiple airlines in the SkyTeam network, passengers can utilize the frequent flyer program on any member airline and use their miles for award flights on any member airline within the complete SkyTeam network.
The Elite status offers a priority waitlist for reservations, requested seating preferences, priority check-in services, priority boarding, and extra baggage allowance.
The Elite Plus status offers all the Elite benefits, plus additional rights, like guaranteed reservations for full-fare economy on long-haul flights that are fully booked (24+ hours in advance). It also provides access to lounges worldwide, regardless of class of service, and priority baggage handling.
SkyPriority services offer advantages concerning every touchpoint, plus priority access to the immigration and security lines.
The new kid on the block, SkyTeam, offers a sustainable and innovative option in terms of booking tools and loyalty programs.
Oneworld
Oneworld is the smallest of the big 3 airlines alliances main global airline alliances, established in 1999, and headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, USA. It currently has 15 member airlines, with access to nearly 700 lounges around the world, and carries 500 million passengers every year with 13,000 departures a day. The founders of Oneworld were American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, and Qantas. Fiji Airways was added in 2025, and Oman Air became the 15th member in June 2025.
Purpose of creation. Oneworld was founded to develop a first-rate global airline network that offers seamless connectivity and very high service quality for passengers flying from other areas of the world. Oneworld relies on strategic alliances, operational excellence, and innovative customer service to deliver value to customers looking for quality air travel service.
Oneworld’s advantages are also very vast:
Worldwide network covering 170 countries and 900+ destinations
Priority services and handling of baggage, boarding, and check-in
All members offer shared benefits for frequent flyer programs.
Solutions for enterprises. Oneworld has a Global Corporate Travel Program, designed to assist multinational corporations and large businesses. It has several benefits, including discounts from airlines, access to lounges in international airports, priority services (check-in, etc), and travel management options ( centralized billing and travel policies). The package also provides each organization with a dedicated communication contact, a single contractual legal agreement (with a 4-year expiration) common to all participating airlines, and pre-boking opportunities for travel.
Online booking tools for travelers. Oneworld’s global alliance provides travelers with advanced technology (a new AI-based platform created with Elemental Cognition for international travel), as a virtual travel agent. This neuro-symbolic AI operates a highly complex set of fare rules and availability to provide the best flight suggestions. This alliance shows that AI in aviation serves the simplification and improvement for booking processes.
Frequent flyer program privileges. The alliance provides three primary fare types that can be booked through the Oneworld website with multi-city and award flight features: Explorer (continent-based), Global Explorer (distance-based with extended airline access), and Circle Pacific (for exploring the continents that border the Pacific). If we compare the Oneworld alliance vs Star Alliance rewards programs, Oneworld offers a more diversified tiered system.
Within these options, there are three tiers of the Oneworld Frequent Flyer program:
Ruby offers services for priority check-ins, access to reserved or preferred seating, and standby and priority waitlisting.
Sapphire allows global access to business class lounges, priority baggage handling and boarding, as well as additional baggage allowance on top of all Ruby offerings.
Emerald tier offers first-class and business-class lounge access, priority lane/fast track security pass, improved priority services at every point of contact, and priority handling and the maximum baggage allowance above the Emerald badge benefits.
This closes the list of the three airline alliances - but it’s not the end of all the airline alliances existing in the world. Let’s also discover other options.
Bilateral and multiilateral codeshares
Codeshare is one of the main basics of the alliances, but it can also represent a separate way for several airlines to collaborate. The quantity in these “several” is the difference between the following types.
A bilateral codeshare (agreements between two carriers) is the most straightforward shape of airline cooperation. According to Begera, they enable airlines to code (assign) a single flight for two or more airline codes.
Bilateral cooperation isn’t necessarily a part of the processes of world alliances. When one airline sells tickets for another airline's flight under that airline's flight number (for example, when Iberia sells tickets for American Airlines flights, this is a common example of a bilateral codeshare. Bilateral codeshares offer passengers excellent connectivity and consistent service standards - and let both airlines expand their networks without purchasing additional aircraft.
To improve network coverage and operational efficiencies, three or more airlines work together under multiway agreements or multilateral codeshares. Though a less common option, multilateral codeshares offer connectivity and scale. Via standardized processes such as the e-AWB system, organizations like IATA regularly deal with multilateral agreements providing several carriers with the framework to coordinate their services across extensive networks.
Multilateral agreements regulate revenue distribution among carriers involved in transporting passengers and freight. One of the known alliance examples of companies having this type of codeshare is Etihad Airways with partners like Air Canada, Air Europa, and many more.
With our deep expertise, COAX creates comprehensive travel booking solutions that integrate multiple airline systems, automate revenue sharing calculations, and provide unified passenger experiences across all partner carriers, regardless of whether you're implementing bilateral or multilateral codeshare partnerships.
Regional partnerships and small alliances
As we already defined, there’s a great difference in limitations imposed on airlines by partnership vs alliance, with alliance being a much stricter one. This is why many local and low-cost carriers (LCCs) choose not to get alliance membership due to strict requirements, but pursue other types of partnerships better aligned with their operational philosophies.
For budget carriers, alliance structures are often not compatible. They prioritize operational simplicity, limited service, and secondary airports, enabling them to maintain competitive pricing for short-haul routes.
Slow to evolve for LCC, the challenges are best illustrated through the Value Alliance. For some time, it was the fourth biggest in the world when launched in 2016, with 6 Asia-Pacific low-cost airlines flying 180 aircraft to 160 destinations. The alliance ended in 2023, without any official announcement, reflecting the structural challenges of collaborating as low-cost partner airlines - they could not sustain a partnership on cost-focused collaboration.
Major full-service carriers also often say "no" to joining alliances to keep hub traffic profitable. There are many examples when airlines form partnerships and codeshare with multiple companies to diversify offerings (which wouldn’t be possible in the rigid alliance model). Let’s take a look at this complex network:
Emirates Airlines doesn’t share profits with other airlines by routing international travelers. At the same time, the company has long-standing bilateral agreements with JetBlue.
An additional example of a smaller regional partnership is Southwest Airlines, with the international interline agreements launching in 2025. Initially, Icelandair connected through larger gateway cities, such as Baltimore, Denver, and Nashville. Later, connections to the West Coast were facilitated by China Airlines alliance for transpacific routes. This widened the choices of travel by enabling passengers to connect smoothly from international flights onto the U.S.-based domestic Southwest network - all while earning Rapid Rewards points.
This shows us well that strategic independence and selective partnerships can coexist outside the alliance model, providing benefits for all partners involved.
Joint ventures
Joint venturesare the highest form of airline cooperation: they require partners to act as a single operational entity. It requires a great deal of regulatory approval because of the potential impact on competition in the market, as airlines coordinate everything from flight schedules to pricing efforts. Another factor of the deep integration this form of partnership entails is sharing the operating costs and revenues that are created by each participant.
There are currently three major joint ventures in the transatlantic marketplace that showcase this collaboration.
Air France-KLM, Delta, and Virgin Atlantic (alliance partners) have been the first in the world to form a joint venture that has established a certain connection across the European and American network to organize up to 341 daily peak transatlantic services.
American Airlines, British Airways, Iberia, Finnair, and Aer Lingus are heavily invested in premium transatlantic routes.
In the third major joint venture, United Airlines, Air Canada, and Lufthansa (members of Star Alliance) also share deeply integrated parts.
However, joint ventures can also include affiliations outside the alliances. For instance, Delta's joint ventures with LATAM and Korean Air build their positions in South America and East Asia, respectively - this partnership used the joint venture structure to link across alliance membership boundaries.
FAQ
What is an airline alliance?
Gaggero and Bartolini define an airline alliance as "a cooperative arrangement among two or more airline companies designed for improved competitiveness and performance.” This could include ground handling, computer systems, lounges in airports, and joint facility use. Airline alliances first arose in the late 80s when joint transatlantic dealings between Northwest Airlines and KLM began in 1989. The first three main alliances remain today: Star Alliance (the largest and came first in 1997), Oneworld (1999), and SkyTeam (2000).
What is an alliance partner from the legal, financial, and operational perspectives?
Gaggero and Bartolini used three categories to describe alliance partnership meaning: legally, financially, and operationally. Legally, the parties require regulatory approval and antitrust immunity; financially, revenue sharing occurs, while corporate independence is maintained; and operationally, airlines must coordinate schedules and share facilities. Giving you such an alliances example, in November 2010, American Airlines and British Airways gained approval to act as one carrier at London's Heathrow/Gatwick airports.
What are different airlines’ obligations they comply with when joining an alliance?
As noted by Suryawan, for airlines to benefit from an alliance, they are required to comply with the constraints from antitrust laws prohibiting monopolies, consumer protection regulations, including non-discrimination protections and passenger rights, and maintenance of health and safety requirements under the liability frameworks. Compliance can further strain data security requirements and national aviation laws on strategic partnerships; additionally, airlines are now subject to health safety requirements imposed as a result of COVID-19.
Oneworld vs Star Alliance vs Skyteam: which one is the best to join as an airline?
In the battle of alliances, to choose Star Alliance vs Oneworld, premium transatlantic airlines typically pick Star Alliance's larger network, while to choose Oneworld vs Star Alliance, airlines focused on the Asia-Pacific region would prefer Oneworld's regional strength. Meanwhile, in the Star Alliance vs SkyTeam contest, European carriers often decide to stick with SkyTeam, as Air France-KLM has a great continental dominance. Ultimately, selection from these alliances depends on geographic focus, compatibility of operations, and goals.
How do airlines protect travelers in the event of a missed connection?
A definite alliances examples of how such protection is done is Star Alliance’s Connection centers that offers a proactive service of connectivity monitoring at 9 major hubs, including Frankfurt, London Heathrow, and Chicago O'Hare. The center’s teams track interline passengers and alert them of a missed connection by a short window of delay. They also developed an alert system to work with their valued baggage moving to their next connection flight. Currently operating in Europe and North America, the service continues to expand based on real-time flight data studies that the centers conduct.