It now seems that Delta Airlines is going to offer the struggling Japan Airlines a $1 billion incentive if it was to leave Oneworld Alliance. The United States carrier is currently leading SkyTeam group in a bid to rescue the struggling Japanese carrier. However, the only condition that Japan Airlines has to meet is to leave SkyTeam’s rival alliance, Oneworld.

Just two days ago, Japan Airlines had revealed a $1.5 billion first half loss. The airline, for the fourth time since 2001, approached the Japanese government for a bail out. This was something that the Japanese government refused at first.

Delta Airlines is very keen to secure Japan Airlines into SkyTeam as part of its plans to expand its routes to Japan overall. By forming a closer alliance with Japan Airlines, Delta Airlines will be able to go ahead with starting up more routes between the United States and Japan.

SkyTeam’s Far East alliance partners right now include China Southern and Korean Air. Thus, for SkyTeam, Japan Airlines would be the perfect fit. As of now SkyTeam has no Japanese airline at all in its group.

The SkyTeam offer includes a proposal to buy $500 million in Japan Airlines shares and $300 million of guarantees to cover any kind of short term loss in sales caused by leaving Oneworld. It also includes $200 million in asset backed financing and a further $20 million to cover Japan Airlines’ costs of switching alliances. Japan Airlines has refused to comment, but it would seem that this is a hard deal for Japan Airlines to pass up, considering the state of its business right now.