It was getting uncomfortably quiet on the oneworld front until news broke that it would next year welcome its newest alliance member, SriLankan Airlines.

“oneworld is pleased to welcome a high-quality airline that will enhance oneworld’s network and product offerings in one of the world’s fastest growing regions for air travel demand,” Bruce Ashby, CEO of oneworld said.

I agree that any new member to an alliance is good as it opens up new networks and new destination/routing opportunities, the choice of SriLankan Airlines does seem like an unusual fit. Most airlines these days belong to alliances, with the remaining few either taking a strategic ‘no alliance’ stance or a ‘no-one will take us’ position.

Oneworld has some good quality members: Qantas, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and American Airlines are some of the big name airlines on oneworld’s resume. Then comes SriLankan – a 3 star airline according to SKYTRAX. Reviews commonly feature frequent delays and an overall crappy proposition for travellers. Reading through these reviews I can’t say i’m impressed; knowing that these guys are now in an alliance doesn’t inspire me to book flights with them.

But I shouldn’t be a negative nelly with SriLankan as anything that brings more choice for customers is a good thing. I’m just not hugely blown away with what some would consider another ’2nd tier airline’ joining the group. The alliance needs revitalising and it needs some good PR from a big independent airline with an impressive track record with customer satisfaction.

Travellers will be happy to know that they will now have more options for travelling to the Maldives, with Srilankan Airline offering 4 or 5 flights a day from Colombo (the capital of Sri Lanka).

You can find out more at the SriLankan website.
Find out more about Sri Lanka here.

Will you be keen to give SriLankan a try once they join the alliance?

Or, have you flown SriLankan previously and if so, what did you think?