Oneworld
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- The title of this article is incorrect because of technical limitations. The correct title is oneworld.
oneworld is third largest airline alliance in the world, behind Star Alliance and Skyteam. oneworld member airlines and their affiliates enjoy a high degree of co-operation in scheduling, ticketing, code sharing, flight transfer operations, frequent flyer benefits, shared airport lounges, reducing costs and sharing 'best practice'. The goals of the alliance are:
- Making global travel smoother, easier, better value and more rewarding.
- Offering travel solutions beyond the reach of any airline’s individual network.
- Providing a common commitment to high standards of quality, service and safety.
- Creating a world where customers always feel at home, wherever their journey may take them.
- Delivering its airlines with savings and benefits greater than any can achieve by itself.
oneworld was the first airline alliance to establish a central management. Based in Vancouver, Canada, oneworld has a Managing Director, reporting to the alliance board, which is made up of the Chief Executives of each of the member airlines. Chairman of the board is held on a rotating basis. Reporting to the Managing Partner are function heads for Commercial, IT, Public Relations, Airports and Customer Service, and a Global Project Director.
oneworld member airlines also develop common specifications as widely as possible across their engineering and maintenance activities, aligning their policies and procedures and work together to develop and support solutions that can be applied throughout the airline industry. Costs are also reduced through bulk buying and by sharing parts between one another.
The oneworld alliance reaches over 600 destinations in 135 countries around the world, operating over 8000 daily flights. In 2004 oneworld carried over 230 million passengers on a combined fleet of some 2000 aircraft. It is the only airline alliance whose members earned a combined profit in the past year - US$1.5 billion net, against combined losses by Star carriers totalling more than US$2.2 billion and an overall deficit by SkyTeam’s members in excess of US$7 billion.
oneworld was voted the world’s best airline alliance in the 2004 Business Traveller Awards and named the World's Leading Airline Alliance for the second year running at the 2004 World Travel Awards.
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Members
- Malév (signed memorandum of understanding, expected to ascend to membership status in 2006)
In addition, regional subsidiaries and franchise carriers of the above airlines are affiliate members of oneworld.
Membership History
oneworld was launched in September 1998 when American Airlines, British Airways, Canadian Airlines, Cathay Pacific and Qantas announced their intention to form an alliance. In February of the following year, oneworld became operational, and member airlines began offering the alliance benefits. Iberia and Finnair joined later in 1999, and the following year saw Aer Lingus and LanChile join the alliance. However, founding member Canadian Airlines was acquired by Air Canada after a period of financial difficulty; Air Canada being a member of rival Star Alliance.
Swiss International Air Lines accepted an invitation to join in September 2003, at the same time signing a memorandum of understanding with British Airways, agreeing to a strategic alliance with the British carrier including extensive code sharing, slot exchange agreements at London Heathrow and merging the Swiss frequent flyer programme with the British Airways Executive Club. However, Swiss terminated the agreement in June 2004, citing the signifcant costs and drawbacks of the integration would outweigh the long term benefits. As a result of the termination of the BA alliance, Swiss decided not to proceed with its application to join oneworld. In March 2005, Lufthansa announced the take-over of Swiss, paving the way for its membership of the Star Alliance.
For a time during 2003, British Airways and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines began discussions on a possible merger, which would have significantly increased the size of oneworld, bringing KLM's strategic partner Northwest Airlines into the enlarged alliance. However, the talks were fruitless and KLM merged with Air France the following year, creating the world's largest airline in Air France-KLM and significantly boosting Skyteam, making it the second largest alliance after Star Alliance.
On 24th May, 2005, oneworld alliance has signed a memorandum of understanding with Hungary's Malév Airlines as the first step towards joining the alliance. After Malév has reached the requirements, it could be expected to join oneworld in 2006.
Possible future members
Other carriers who code share with member airlines, but are not members of oneworld include Japan Airlines. JAL enjoys a close working relationship with American, BA and Cathay Pacific, and has code sharing agreements with Lan, Iberia and Qantas. For the time being, however, JAL remains unaligned with any alliance. It is seen by some observers as a candidate for future entry to oneworld, however there is no indication that this will take place in the near future.
SN Brussels Airlines also shares a close working relationship with several oneworld members, including a strategic alliance with British Airways, who handle check-in and ground support for SN aircraft in the United Kingdom, as well as shared lounges and frequent flyer programmes. SN Brussels also code share with American, Iberia and Finnair. As some of the agreements of oneworld membership are already in place, SN Brussels is in an advantageous position to join the alliance if so required.
Other airlines seen by some as potential members of oneworld include TAM Airlines, which has recently terminated its agreement with Skyteam's Air France and strengthened its relationship with American Airlines, and Mexicana. Mexicana ended its membership of Star Alliance in 2004 after failing to renew a partnership with United Airlines, choosing instead to code share with American Airlines. It has also been a code share partner with Iberia since 2003.
Although Cathay Pacific has recently taken a 10% stake in Air China and signed a deal that includes co-ordinated schedules and joint marketing efforts, no agreement with oneworld has been made and it is unclear how this will affect Air China's discussions on Star Alliance membership 1 (http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-12/21/content_401958.htm). However, China Eastern partners with American Airlines and Qantas, and is a partner of Cathay Pacific's Frequent Flyer Programme, Asia Miles.
External links
- Oneworld Alliance (http://www.oneworld.com/) - official site providing benefits, travel planning, news and information.
| Members of the oneworld Alliance |
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Aer Lingus | American Airlines | British Airways | Cathay Pacific | Finnair | Iberia Airlines | Lan | Qantas |