SriLankan joining oneworld

[CathayPacific]

Didn't see this coming, especially about the part that CX being the sponsor as CX currently has no relationship with UL whatsoever.

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/art...eworld-372814/

[Peter Kesternich]

Nice for SriLankan, but I am not sure what OneWorld gets out of it, given that SriLankan in my opinion is a bit of a niche carrier (no offense)

[tsv]

Well if I was working for OW I would explore the possibility of getting other OW Carriers to help Sri Lankan to start new routes into 5 or 6 of the most important Indian Ports as well as one or 2 more Pakistani Ports, PVG, PEK & DAC. They may be able to assist with route planning, marketing, scheduling, code sharing etc.

The flights could depart at basically the same time and connect with a bank of flights from and to some of the other OW Hubs (eg DME, LHR, HKG, KUL, NRT, MEL, TXL, MAD, HEL, ORD).

In the same way EK has set up a Mega Hub at DXB OW could use CMB as it's gateway to Northern Asia. Geographically CMB is well placed for a hub operation even though O & D traffic is negligible.

Does anyone know if the Terminal in CMB lends itself to bulk transit operations or if it could be adapted to do so?