"The Fourth Alliance" sounds like a good title for an espionage thriller or sci-fi movie, but for now we're using it for the relatively mundane purpose of describing a bunch of airlines with a common purpose, which is not to say we have completely left the world of make-believe.
The new alliance calls itself Etihad Airways Partners, which is remarkable for a number of reasons.
For one thing, it's the first alliance to adopt the brand name of a major partner. Star, SkyTeam and Oneworld were founded on the notion that all members would be stakeholders in a shared brand. Etihad is taking the opposite approach, implicitly holding up one partner's brand as the standard for the group.
And it is hugely significant that the lead partner is one of the leading Persian Gulf state airlines. There are not many airlines in the world with reputations for extraordinary service, but a select few, such as Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways, are clustered in the Gulf region, where they are creating new global hubs that are challenging the legacy networks.
The initial members of this alliance are Airberlin, Air Serbia, Air Seychelles, India's Jet Airways and Switzerland's Darwin Airline. That's not a group that exactly spans the globe, but maybe geography isn't everything.
When the three major alliances were putting themselves together, they aimed for global coverage -- combining strategically located carriers in North and South America with a Western European member here, an Asian partner over there, etc.
The result, as many consumers have found, may have been global connectivity, but the continuity of the customer experience is often a stitch or two below the oft-promised level of "seamless."
Etihad describes its partners as "like-minded airlines" and says it is emphasizing "shared values" and even admitting members of other alliances.
We're not sure we need a fourth alliance any more than we needed the first three. But if there is to be a fourth, "shared values" would be a good place to start.