The Next Airlines to Join Oneworld & Star Alliance

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

In recent months, both Fiji Airways and Oman Air have joined the Oneworld alliance. Meanwhile, ITA Airways left SkyTeam earlier this year and intends to join Star Alliance in 2026.

It comes after SAS switched in September 2024 from Star Alliance to SkyTeam, while Czech Airlines left SkyTeam (and ended operations entirely) in October 2024.

With some airlines switching alliances, there have even been a few status match offers lately to lure in flyers who would rather not make the switch. We expect to see even more of these over the next year.

And that’s not all that’s changing. Here’s what you need to know about the upcoming changes to the global airline alliances…

Lufthansa City Airlines is joining Star Alliance

Last year, Lufthansa Group launched a new regional subsidiary called Lufthansa City Airlines. This airline appears to primarily exist to reduce the group’s labour costs on short-haul routes. It operates on Lufthansa routes, using planes that look like Lufthansa mainline planes – except for the added word “City” painted on the side.

Frustratingly for customers, this new airline was not actually part of Star Alliance yet – until now.

This has meant that, if you have Star Alliance status with a program other than Miles&More, you wouldn’t receive any of your usual benefits when flying Lufthansa City.

Lufthansa is finally rectifying this issue, as Lufthansa City Airlines will join Star Alliance on 9 September 2025. It will be the first new airline to join Star Alliance in around a decade.

Star is the largest of the global alliances, with the most member airlines and highest number of flights. But, after an initial growth phase, its focus in recent years has been on improving the customer experience rather than adding more members.

Hawaiian Airlines will join Oneworld in 2026

Boosting Oneworld’s presence in the Pacific even further, Hawaiian Airlines will join Oneworld in 2026. This is happening as a result of Hawaiian Airlines merging with existing Oneworld member Alaska Airlines, although the two brands will remain separate.

According to the airline, Hawaiian will join Oneworld “in conjunction with Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines reaching a single passenger service system”, a process that should be completed next year.

In the meantime, Qantas has already started offering Classic Reward redemptions on Hawaiian Airlines as part of a broader frequent flyer partnership.

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

ITA Airways switching from SkyTeam to Star Alliance

The Lufthansa Group is currently in the process of buying Italian flag carrier ITA Airways (formerly Alitalia). Lufthansa is a key member of Star Alliance, so it’s no surprise that ITA Airways will now also 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 will join Star Alliance, but not until 2026 – leaving the airline currently in a temporary state of limbo where it’s not in any alliance. (At least ITA Volare members will already be somewhat used to the inconsistent benefits!)

Lufthansa Group has announced that ITA Airways will join Star Alliance in 2026.

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.

Star Alliance could lose Asiana Airlines

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. Once this happens, the Asiana brand will disappear and the airline will no longer be part of Star Alliance as it will be absorbed into Korean Air.

Other airlines have expressed interest in joining Oneworld

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

According to recent reports, this won’t happen at least until Condor has repaid the debt it owes to the German government. That is due in September 2026. But after that point, it’s a very 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 Lufthansa Group, while also helping the Oneworld alliance to fill the gap in central Europe left by Airberlin when it went out of business.

In the coming years, Qatar Airways may also sponsor RwandAir to join the Oneworld alliance. Taiwan’s Starlux and MIAT Mongolian Airlines too have expressed their desire to join Oneworld.

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 Brazilian airline.

Which other airlines could join an alliance?

There’s always lots of speculation about other airlines potentially joining an alliance. For example, there have been rumours for years that China Southern could seek to join Oneworld – although Cathay Pacific might block this. China Southern left SkyTeam at the end of 2018.

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 it does 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.