Oneworld (marketed as oneworld; CRS: *O) is an airline alliance and was founded on 1 February 1999. The alliance’s stated objective is to be the first-choice airline alliance for the world’s frequent international travelers. Its central alliance office is currently based in New York City, New York, in the United States. Its member airlines include Air Berlin, American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Qatar Airways, Royal Jordanian, S7 Airlines, TAM Airlines and SriLankan Airlines plus some 30 affiliated airlines. As of 31 March 2014, Oneworld is the third largest global alliance in terms of passengers with 506.9 M passengers, behind Star Alliance (637.6 M) and SkyTeam (588 M). Its slogan is, “An alliance of the world’s leading airlines working as one.”
As of October 2013, its member airlines collectively operate a fleet of some 3,300 aircraft, serve about a thousand airports in more than 150 countries, carrying 475 million passengers per year on 14,000 daily departures, generating annual revenues of more than US$ 140 billion.
Management
Oneworld announced the formation of a central alliance team, the Oneworld Management Company (oMC), in February 2000 to mark the alliance’s first anniversary. The oMC was established in May 2000 in Vancouver, Canada, and in June 2011 relocated to New York City. It acts as the alliance’s central secretariat, with responsibility for driving future growth and the launch of new customer services and benefits. The oMC was first led by Managing Partner Peter Buecking, previously Director of Sales and Marketing at Cathay Pacific; followed by John McCulloch, previously the alliance’s Vice-President for Marketing; and since December 2011 by Bruce Ashby, who previously held roles of CEO of Saudi Arabia’s SAMA Airlines, CEO of India’s IndiGo, and Executive Vice-President for US Airways. Reporting to the CEO are Vice-Presidents for Commercial; Membership and Customer Experience; and Corporate Communications, a Chief Financial Officer and an IT Director.
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. American Airlines’ Chairman Tom Horton currently has the role.
Headquarters
In 2011, the alliance headquarters relocated to Park Avenue in New York City, sharing premises with the local offices of a number of Oneworld member airlines including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Japan Airlines, and Qantas.
Tenth anniversary
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. In the past decade, membership has doubled from an initial five members to ten members now; 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 round blue orb.
