The Newest Airlines Joining (And Leaving) Oneworld & Star Alliance

Changes are afoot at the global airline alliances – Oneworld, Star Alliance and SkyTeam.

The latest news is that Philippine Airlines will soon join the Oneworld alliance, while Asiana will exit Star Alliance later this year. It follows Hawaiian Airlines joining Oneworld and ITA Airways becoming a Star Alliance member in April 2026.

Here’s what you need to know about the most recent and upcoming changes to the global airline alliances…

Hawaiian Airlines has joined Oneworld

Boosting Oneworld’s presence in the Pacific even further, Hawaiian Airlines joined Oneworld on 22 April 2026. This is happening as a result of Hawaiian Airlines merging with existing Oneworld member Alaska Airlines. The two brands will remain separate, but all flights are now being operated under Alaska Airlines’ “AS” IATA code.

Qantas already started offering Classic Reward redemptions on Hawaiian Airlines last year, as part of a broader frequent flyer partnership.

Virgin Australia’s previous partnership with Hawaiian Airlines ended in June 2025.

ITA Airways switched from SkyTeam to Star Alliance

The Lufthansa Group is currently in the process of buying Italian flag carrier ITA Airways (formerly known as Alitalia). Lufthansa is a key member of Star Alliance, so it’s no surprise that ITA Airways has also now become a Star Alliance member.

As part of this process, ITA Airways suddenly announced in February 2025 that it was leaving SkyTeam, effective immediately. The airline then spent a bit over a year outside of any alliance, before joining Star Alliance on 1 April 2026.

As the airline joined Star Alliance, the ITA Airways Volare loyalty program also shut down. Volare members have been invited to join the Lufthansa Miles&More program instead, which is now also the loyalty program for ITA Airways – but this is not an automatic process.

Philippine Airlines is joining Oneworld in 2027

Philippine Airlines will become the 16th Oneworld member airline when it joins sometime in 2027. The announcement that the Philippines’ national carrier would join Oneworld came somewhat out of the blue last month, but integration work has already started.

In the meantime, you can already now redeem Qantas Points to fly with Philippine Airlines. We understand that this has already been a very popular option among Qantas Frequent Flyer members, and that around a third of Qantas points redemptions on Philippine Airlines so far have been in premium cabins.

Star Alliance will lose Asiana Airlines in December 2026

Asiana Airlines, based in Korea, has been a long-standing member of Star Alliance. But it’s currently in the process of merging with SkyTeam’s Korean Air.

The Asiana brand will disappear on 17 December 2026. From this date, the airline will no longer be part of Star Alliance as it will be fully absorbed into Korean Air. Unfortunately, Asiana will not even honour Star Alliance award bookings that have already been made for travel after this date.

Juneyao Airlines to become full Star Alliance member

China’s Juneyao Airlines has been a “Star Alliance Connecting Partner” since 2017. This is similar to the Oneworld Connect concept, which sounds great in theory but can be confusing and frustrating for passengers who don’t get to enjoy the full alliance benefits.

Recently, there have been reports that Juneyao is preparing to be fully integrated into Star Alliance. That would be a welcome development.

Other airlines have expressed interest in joining Oneworld

German airline Condor revealed in 2025 that it was in talks with American Airlines regarding cooperation between the two carriers. This fuelled strong rumours that the airline is considering joining the Oneworld alliance – something that the German Aerospace Center has even explicitly recommended to Condor.

In September 2026, Condor and American Airlines launched the first step of a partnership with a new interline agreement. This came just weeks after Qantas and Condor too launched a partnership.

According to reports, Condor was not previously able to join an alliance while it still owed COVID-era debt to the German government. But Condor fully repaid that debt in September 2026, meaning ascension into the Oneworld alliance is now a real possibility.

Condor joining Oneworld would be a win-win for both the airline and the alliance. It would help Condor to compete better in the German market with the larger Lufthansa Group, while also helping the Oneworld alliance to fill the gap in central Europe left by Airberlin when it went out of business almost a decade ago.

In the coming years, Qatar Airways may also sponsor RwandAir to join the Oneworld alliance. Taiwan’s Starlux, Canada’s Porter Airlines and MIAT Mongolian Airlines too have expressed their desire to join Oneworld. The entry of Starlux into Oneworld is reportedly being blocked by an existing member.

Where Oneworld really needs a new member, though, is South America. Since LATAM Airlines left the alliance in 2020, there have been no Oneworld airlines based in South America at all.

Unfortunately, there are no obvious candidates as LATAM Airlines is tied up with Delta, and the other major network carriers – avianca, Copa Airlines and Aerolíneas Argentinas – are already in other alliances.

Brazil’s GOL Airlines could be a useful addition, and already has a strong partnership with American Airlines. But GOL is primarily a low-cost airline, so alliance membership might not make sense for it. And it’s probably going to be pretty busy over the coming years as it merges with Azul, another major Brazilian airline.

Could Virgin Australia join an alliance?

There’s always lots of speculation about other airlines potentially joining an alliance. And I’ve lost count of the number of times people have suggested Virgin Australia should join Star Alliance.

For what it’s worth, I think Virgin Australia would make a great addition to Star Alliance. Any alliance membership would also make Velocity Frequent Flyer significantly more attractive to genuine frequent flyers, and would help to make Virgin Australia much more competitive against Qantas.

Alas, for now, Virgin seems to be happy enough with its complicated bilateral partnership structure – which arguably works much better for Velocity than for its members. I think this is unlikely to change until at least such time that Bain Capital sells its ownership stake in the airline.