单选题：TEXT BCooperative competition．Competitive cooperation．Confus

TEXT B
Cooperative competition．Competitive cooperation．Confused? Airline alliances have travellers scratching their heads over what’s going on in the skies．Some folks view alliances as a blessing to travellers，offering seamless travel，reduced fares and enhanced frequent-flyer benefits．Others see a conspiracy of big businesses，causing decreased competition，increased fares and fewer choices．Whatever your opinion，there’s no escaping airline alliances：the marketing hype is unrelenting，with each of the two mega-groupings，Oneworld and Star Alliance，promoting itself as the best choice for all travellers．And，even if you turn away from their ads,chances are that they will figure in any of your travel plans．By the end of the Year ,Oneworld and Star Alliance will between them control more than 40%of the traffic in the sky. Some Pundits predict that figure will be more like 75%in 10 years.
But why，after years of often ferocious competition，have airlines decided to band together? Let，s just say the timing is mutually convenient．North American airlines，having exhausteda11 means of earning customer loyalty at home，have been looking for ways to reach out to tor-eign flyers．Asian carriers are still hurting from the region. wide economic downturn that began two years ago一just when some of the airlines were taking delivery of new aircraft. Alliances also allow carriers to cut costs and increase profits by pooling manpower resources on the ground(rather than each airline maintaining its own ground crew)and code-sharing一the Practice of two partners selling tickets and operating only one aircraft.
So alliances are terrific for airlines-but are they good for the passenger? Absolutely, say the airlines：think of the lounges，the joint FFP(frequent flyer programme)benetits，the round．the．world fares，and the global service networks．Then there’s the promlse of” seamless travel：the ability to，say，travel from Singapore to Rome to New York to Rio de Janiero，all on one ticket，without having to wait hours for connections or worry about Your bags. Sounds Utopian?
Peter Bueckin9，Cathay Pacific’s director of sales and marketin9，thinks that seamless travel is still evolvin9．“It’s fair to say that these links are only in their infancy .The key to seam.1essness rcsts in infrastructure and information sharing．We’re working on this.” Henry Ma’ spokesperson for Star Alliance in Hong Kong．1ists some of the other benefits for consumers：“Global travellers have an easier time making connections and planing their itineraries.”Ma claims alliances also assure passengers consistent service standards.
Critics of alliances say the much．touted benefits to the consumer are mostly pie In the sky，that alliances are all about reducing costs for the airlines，rationalizing services and running joint marketing programmes．Jeff Blyskal，associate editor of Consumer Reports magazine，says the promotional ballyhoo over alliances is much ado about nothing. “I don’t see much o