ارتباط نام تجاری بین اتحادیه های هواپیمایی جهانی و خطوط هوایی عضو آنها  Brand relationship between global airline alliances and their member airlines

1. Introduction Global airline alliances play a major role in global aviation markets. The three airline alliances Star Alliance, SkyTeam, and Oneworld include 28, 30, and 16 member airlines, respectively (as of July 2015), which jointly provide more than half of all airline seat capacity and serve approximately 60% of international travelers. Despite their large passenger volume, global airline alliances are facing fierce competition from low-cost carriers, Gulf-based airlines, and other international airlines (OAG, 2015). This compels alliance airlines to enhance their competitiveness under agreements with alliances and other member airlines (e.g., service compatibility and information technology connectivity). In ensuring that passengers enjoy consistent services when traveling with different member airlines, these agreements may restrict the flexibility of member airlines in devising competitive strategies. As the competition in global aviation markets becomes increasingly fierce, the alliances may be more fragile than they appear. For example, despite belonging to two alliances, American Airlines (AAL) and Korean Air announced in February 2015 that they have signed an agreement to begin code-sharing flights between Dallas/ Fort Worth International Airport in the United States and Incheon International Airport in Seoul, South Korea. Such an act by member airlines would increase the motivation of alliances and their member airlines to gain or maintain competitiveness. Brands and branding are crucial to firms in establishing competitive superiority (Keller and Lehmann, 2006); this also applies to global airline alliances and their member airlines (He and Balmer, 2006). Studies have recognized the importance of brands for airlines. For example, Chen and Chang (2008) investigated the relationships among airline brand equity, brand preference, and purchase intentions. The authors demonstrated that airline brand equity positively affected the purchase intention of passengers. In afollow-up study, Chen and Tseng (2010) found that passengers’ perceived quality and brand images of airlines positively affected their loyalty to airline brands. Unlike airline brands, alliance brands have gained limited attention. Studies on global airline alliances have mostly focused on operational (e.g., cost reduction by code-sharing) and strategic (e.g., network extension with allied airlines) advantages; however, alliance brands and their effect on passenger purchasing are rarely discussed. In investigating global airline alliance brands, He and Balmer (2006) qualitatively evaluated the brand and branding activities of Oneworld and suggested that the Oneworld brand was not mature but could develop into a valuable strategic resource. By using fictitious scenarios to investigate passenger responses, Woisetschlager et al. (2008) € demonstrated that the announcement of joining or leaving an alliance altered the brand image of airlines; moreover, global airline alliance brands were affected by the entry or exit of airlines with different brand strength. Wang (2014) investigated the effect of being an alliance member on enhancing airline brand equity, which successively affected passenger purchase intention and crucially influenced the passengers who were highly involved in global airline alliances.