Why has alliance formation as a strategy become so important to airline companies?

Seminar paper from the year 2002 in the subject Tourism, grade: C (55%), Helia Business University of Business and Applied Sciences (-), course: Global Air Transport Management, 3 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: Nowadays globalisation is affecting every sector of the modern business world. 'The world is shrinking' and making business in a different country has become as normal as travelling to the next big city. Advances in technology have also contributed to this major change; computers work quicker and fulfil more tasks, travelling is easier and faster, the Internet is connecting the whole world and provides people with up-to-date information from the other side of the globe. Also, the demand in people to travel and learn about other cultures is growing as well as business tourism resulting from the newfound businesses abroad. The airline industry has responded to this: Alliances are formed, in order to keep airlines alive, provide a bigger market or easier marketing strategies. It is also an opportunity to save costs and expand the airline companies. The following parts are going to explain shortly the history of alliances, the advantages and disadvantages alliances can have and will finally conclude why alliance forming has become an important strategy in the airline industry.