The Star Alliance will not require South African Airways to drop its partnerships with outside airlines such as British Airways, Air France, Cathay Pacific, and Qantas when the African carrier joins Star next year.

Chris Klick, Star Alliance’s vicepresident for corporate affairs, said yesterday that although the organisation would prefer collaboration among member airlines, it would not demand that new alliance members relinquish deals with other airlines.



“We are striving for a win-win situation. A decision to join (or relinquish certain partnerships) should not hurt the bottom line,” said Klick.



Star Alliance’s six-member team was in SA to start the process of integrating SAA into the alliance, Klick said. The integration would include harmonising the ticket booking systems and frequent flyer programmes.



SAA spokesman Onkgopotse Tabane said the airline would communicate with its current code-sharing partners about which ones it was planning to cut ties with.



He said a decision would be made in the next 18 months.