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Mumbai : According to a report, after being thwarted by the three major global alliances ---Oneworld, SkyTeam and Star, El Al Israel Airlines is going to start its own group of carriers.
The new alliance will be called WE - derived from the first initials of Western-Eastern, to capture the scope El Al Israel Airlines hopes the group will have. The airline has been looking for alliance membership to broaden its global reach and has also expressed interest in serving Japan, India and South America.
Reports mention that El Al Israel Airlines already has letters of intent to join the alliance from Russia's UTAir, Ukraine's AeroSvit and Armenian carrier Armavia, and intends to have final agreements within about three months. El Al Israel Airlines plans to sign up 20 airlines by the end of 2011.
El Al Israel Airlines has had trouble joining alliances because of its stringent security measures and its policy of not flying on the Jewish Sabbath. Airline officials said that there is political opposition from Arab carriers in the major alliances. Also, El Al Israel Airlines does not fly to most Muslim countries; therefore it cannot offer a Middle Eastern route network to an alliance.
Thwarted in its attempts to join the three alliances, the airline has also explored codeshare agreements to raise its worldwide profile, but has run into roadblocks because of Israeli antitrust laws. After developing an Eastern Europe alliance network, WE hopes to expand next to other European destinations and then South America.
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