Aviation business
Groups, Alliances & Concepts
The holding companies that own several airlines at once, the global alliances that connect airlines without a shared owner, the core strategy ideas behind them, and the airports they all depend on.
Individual airline case studies live on the Strategy page.
ALN · SECTION BOARD
- Groups
- 4
- Alliances
- 3
- Stories
- 8
Start here
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The idea behind every airline
Hub-and-Spoke vs Point-to-Point
The one choice almost every case study on this site refers back to.
Read it →
Most read this week
European LCC Margins Compared
Why Ryanair’s margin lead over easyJet, Wizz Air and Norwegian holds.
Read it →
Reader favourite
Heathrow’s Third Runway
Approved, cancelled, voted through, ruled unlawful, revived — and now aimed at the mid-2030s or later.
Read it →Airline Groups
Holding companies that own several distinct airline brands — how the acquisitions happened, and why each brand and its livery survives intact.
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Lufthansa Group
Five national carriers, one owner — and why none of them share a livery.
IAG
Why one company owns British Airways, Iberia, Vueling and Aer Lingus.
Air France-KLM
A 2004 merger that still runs as two airlines under one roof.
Ryanair Group
Five airlines, one holding company — Buzz, Malta Air and Lauda Europe explained.
Airline Alliances
Star Alliance, Oneworld and SkyTeam — independently-owned airlines that share codeshares, loyalty benefits and lounge access without merging. Every page shows the full member list, mapped by real hub coordinates.
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Strategy Concepts
The recurring ideas — network design, cost structure, historical lineage — that every individual case study on this site is a specific instance of.
Hub-and-Spoke vs Point-to-Point
The one choice almost every case study on this site refers back to.
European LCC Margins Compared
Why Ryanair’s margin lead over easyJet, Wizz Air and Norwegian holds.
Southwest → Ryanair Lineage
One Texan playbook, copied deliberately by two European founders.
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The 747 and Mass Travel
Built as insurance against supersonic jets. Ended up doing the opposite.
Airport Stories
Why some airports fail, why others get built at breakneck speed, and why the world’s busiest city airport system is still arguing about one runway.
White Elephant Airports
A €1.1bn airport sold for €10,000 — and why a runway never creates demand on its own.
China & India’s Airport Boom
Hundreds of new airports: the megahubs that fill up, and the regional ones that don’t.
Heathrow’s Third Runway
Approved, cancelled, voted through, ruled unlawful, revived — and now aimed at the mid-2030s or later.
Why London Has Six Airports
Seventy years of abandoned plans, and how the overflow built a system by accident.
Last reviewed: October 2026. Facts that change, such as fleets, airspace and airline ownership, are re-checked on a schedule. Spotted an error? Email contact@skyplus.news and we’ll fix it. See how we check facts.