During the Cold War there were two main blocks and a non-aligned movement made up of an heterogeneous mix of countries that had little in common except precisely that: their non-alignment.

Today we have three main alliances, and, in parallel, a number of players that have also little in common, nevertheless, find ways to collaborate and face the giants.

And here is where the Cold War analogy comes in very handy, because one such agreement has just been signed between Russian airline Transaero and America's JetBlue. Just that this time the non-aligned are the Americans and the Russians!

This interline agreement between Transaero and JetBlue will facilitate the transfer of passengers from Transaero's Moscow-New York route onwards to JetBlue's network (JetBlue flies 45 domestic and 20 international routes out of New York-JFK) and the other way round, passengers starting somewhere in the US will be able to fly via New York and Moscow to other Russian domestic destinations.

Last year Transaero flew 180,000 passengers between Moscow and the US, while in the first 8 months of this year passenger traffic on these routes is up by 11% over the same period the previous year. A number likely to increase after the signature and implementation of this agreement.

Bilateral partnerships as an alternative to alliances?

With the Transaero agreement and a similar one signed just a few days before with Emirates, JetBlue is adding to its quite remarkable web of partnerships with other airlines from around the World (either non-aligned or members of one of the main three alliances). An alternative model of collaboration that shows that would be interesting to compare in detail with that of the alliances, but this is material for another post...!