Blog 78: The OneWorld Alliance!
Official Oneworld logo featuring the signature orb
Welcome back to Brooke In The Air! This week, as promised, we are analyzing the One World airline alliance!
INTRODUCTION
The smallest of the threw major alliances at only thirteen (13) members, Oneworld is headquartered at Fort Worth, Texas not far from American Airlines headquarters.
MEMBERSHIP
The founding members of Oneworld, Qantas, Cathay Pacific, British Airways, and American Airlines
The alliance's current membership consists of
1. Alaska Airlines
2. American Airlines
3. British Airways
4. Cathay Pacific
5. Finnair
6. Iberia
7. Japan Airlines
8. Malaysia Airlines
9. Qanta
10. Qatar Airways
11. Royal Air Maroc
12. Royal Jordanian
13. SriLankan Airlines, as well as Fiji Airways as a Oneworld Connect partner. On 20 June 2022, Oman Air announced it would formally join the alliance by 2024.
As of March 2020, its member airlines collectively operate a fleet of 3,296 aircraft, serve about 1,000 airports in 170 countries, carrying over 490 million passengers per year on 13,000 plus daily departures.
ORGANIZATION
The CEO reports to the Oneworld Governing Board, which is made up of the chief executives of each of the member airlines. The Governing Board meets regularly to set strategic direction and review progress. Chairmanship of the board rotates among the alliance members' chief executives. Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker succeeded Qantas CEO as chairman in May 2021. Reporting to the CEO are vice-presidents for commercial; membership and customer experience; and corporate communications, a chief financial officer and an IT director.
OVERVIEW
Oneworld was unveiled by its founding members, American Airlines, British Airways, Canadian Airlines International, Cathay Pacific and Qantas at a press conference in London, United Kingdom, on 21 September 1998. Oneworld was officially launched and became operational on 1st of February in 1999. The alliance outlined its services and benefits as including:
Smoother transfers for passengers travelling across all member airlines
Greater support to passengers regardless of which member airline they are travelling with
Greater range of round-the-world products
Enhanced co‑operation in the member airlines' frequent-flyer programmes to provide more rewards
Wider recognition and access to more airport lounges.
More codeshare agreements and connecting flights between member airlines
Ahead of the official launch, the alliance embarked on an extensive employee communications and training programme, involving virtually all of the 220,000 staff employed by the five-member airlines, to ensure they could deliver what the alliance brand promised. At its launch in 1999, Oneworld's member airlines and their affiliates served 648 destinations in 139 countries and carried 181 million passengers with a fleet of 1,577 aircraft.
BEGINNINGS
Swiss International Air Lines (Swiss) accepted an invitation to join Oneworld in September 2003, after signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on 23 September 2003 to establish a wide-ranging commercial agreement with British Airways. However, Swiss later decided not to proceed with key elements of its agreement with British Airways and was therefore released from its commitment to join Oneworld; it was taken over by Lufthansa in 2005 and joined Star Alliance in 2006.
The mid-2000s saw Oneworld undertake one of the biggest expansions in its history. Hungarian flag carrier Malév signed an MOU in May 2005 as a precursor to a formal invitation to join, extended in November 2005. On 17 October 2005, the alliance signed as a member-elect Royal Jordanian, the first airline from the Middle East to accept an invitation to join any global airline alliance.
Japan Airlines, then Asia's largest airline group, applied to join the alliance on 25 October 2005. JAL and Oneworld exchanged an MOU on 8 February 2006, setting out a framework for the remaining steps to be taken before the airline could be formally invited to join. On 5 June 2006, JAL accepted a formal letter of invitation to join the alliance, along with five members of the JAL Group as affiliate members, including J-Air, JAL Express, JALways, Japan Asia Airways and Japan Transocean Air.
All three of these airline groups — Japan Airlines, Malév and Royal Jordanian — joined as full members and started offering the alliance's full range of services and benefits on 1 April 2007, along with, as Oneworld affiliate members, Japan Airlines' subsidiaries J‑Air, JAL Express, JALways, Japan Asia Airways and Japan Transocean Air, and LAN's subsidiaries LAN Argentina and LAN Ecuador. They expanded the Oneworld network to almost 700 airports in nearly 150 countries served by 9,000 daily departures, carrying around 315 million passengers per year with a fleet of almost 2,500 aircraft, with top-tier frequent flyers able to access 400 airport lounges worldwide.
In February 2009, Oneworld celebrated its tenth anniversary with its ten member airlines—American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia Airlines, Japan Airlines, LAN, Malév, Qantas, and Royal Jordanian.
Oneworld 10th Anniversary logo
In the past decade, membership had doubled from an initial five members to ten members; its member airlines carried a total of 2.5 billion passengers and generated almost $500 billion, €450 million in revenue from passenger activities. Alliance fares and sales products generated $5 billion, €2.5 billion in revenue alone, with two-thirds or almost $3 billion, €1.5 billion would not have been generated if the alliance did not exist. As part of the celebration and to increase awareness of the 10‑member alliance, all the alliance member airlines decorated a proportion of their aircraft fleets in a new standard Oneworld livery—around 40 aircraft in total, mainly types that fly on international routes. The alliance also unveiled a special version of its logo, featuring the text "10 years" printed behind the word Oneworld as a watermark on its purple orb.
CONTINUED GROWTH
S7 Airlines before sanctions
On the 26th of May in 2009, Russian airline S7 Airlines was unanimously elected to the alliance. It became a full member on 15 November 2010, adding to Oneworld one of the most extensive networks covering Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). It expanded the Oneworld network to another 54 cities, 35 of them in Russia. The airline's subsidiary Globus Airlines joined Oneworld at the same time as an affiliate member.
On the 10th of November 2009, Oneworld welcomed Mexicana and its subsidiaries, MexicanaClick and MexicanaLink, after the airline accepted a formal invitation to join the alliance on 9 April 2008. Mexicana and its affiliates added 26 destinations to the alliance map. Mexicana was a former member of Star Alliance, leaving the group in March 2004 when it terminated its codeshare agreement with United Airlines and opted for bilateral agreements with Oneworld members American Airlines and Iberia.
On the 2nd of August 2010, Mexicana filed for insolvency proceedings in Mexico and bankruptcy protection in the United States with its financial situation deteriorating. The airline suspended all operations from 28 August 2010. With the group under Mexican court protection, it has remained an inactive member of Oneworld since then.
On the 6th of June in 2011, Malaysia Airlines became a new member designate on the sidelines of the IATA World Air Transport Summit in Singapore. Malaysia Airlines became a part of Oneworld in February 2013.
On the 8th of October in 2012, Qatar Airways became a member-elect of Oneworld. Qatar Airways was one of the fastest growing airlines worldwide—adding 15 destinations in 2012 alone—and one of the most highly regarded, having been named Airline of the Year by the Skytrax independent airline quality ratings agency in both 2011 and 2012. The agreement to join was widely reported in the media as a coup for Oneworld, with Qatar Airways the first among the "Big Three" carriers in the Persian Gulf to sign for any global airline alliance. The airline joined the alliance on 30th of October in 2013.
CURRENT ERA/NOW
On 31st of March in 2021, Alaska Airlines and its affiliates Alaska Horizon and Alaska SkyWest joined the alliance as member and member affiliates, respectively.
In June 2022, Oman Air and Oneworld signed the MOU for Oman Air to join the alliance during IATA General Meeting in Doha. Qatar Airways will act as their sponsor.
In August 2023, the CEO of MIAT Mongolian Airlines Munkhtamir Batbayar revealed in an interview the airline would be joining as a Oneworld Connect member, the second one after Fiji Airways. It already has extensive codesharing with some Oneworld members, for example, Cathay Pacific since 2017 and JAL since 2020.
On the 3rd of December in 2023, the Alaska Air Group announced it planned to acquire Hawaiian Airlines for US$1.9 billion. The deal, if approved by regulators, would retain both Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines as separate brands. Under the deal, Hawaiian Airlines will become a Oneworld member and the two airlines will operate a combined frequent flyer program.
Besides its full member airlines, Oneworld also includes around 30 "affiliate" members. These are generally regional airlines that are either owned by or have strong commercial links with the alliance's full members. For customers, they further extend the network the alliance can offer. In governance terms, these affiliates are represented in Oneworld affairs by their "parent" airline.
In 2008, the alliance lost another two affiliate members as British Airways continued the strategy of reducing its UK franchises. The first franchisee, GB Airways, exited the alliance on 30 March 2008, following its purchase by EasyJet. British Airways intended to start services from London Heathrow to Faro, Portugal, and Málaga, Spain, and from London Gatwick to Faro, Gibraltar, Ibiza, Málaga, Palma, and Tunis, which were operated under the franchise. The alliance bid farewell to one of its affiliate member Japan Asia Airways on 31 March 2008, following the airline's consolidation into its parent, Japan Airlines. The second British Airways franchisee, Loganair, left the alliance on 25 October 2008, following the ending of its franchise agreement with the airline. A separate agreement for codesharing on some Loganair services replaced the previous franchise, for British Airways passengers connecting through Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
