oneworld Voted Leading Airline Alliance for Eighth Year Running

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Nov. 8 2010 /PRNewswire/ — oneworld® has been named the World’s Leading Airline Alliance 2010 in the World’s Travel Awards – described by the Wall Street Journal as the “travel industry’s equivalent of the Oscars”.

It is the eighth year running that oneworld has won this honor, retaining the “best alliance” title since 2003.

oneworld was also named World’s Best Airline Alliance in the 2010 World Airline Awards, presented by the Skytrax airline quality organisation in May. In addition, it has also won both the “best alliance for inflight wines” titles presented this year – in Global Traveler magazine’s Wines on the Wing awards in August and Business Traveller’s Cellars in the Sky in February. oneworld is also a three-time winner of the Best Airline Alliance title from Business Traveller magazine.

oneworld member airlines also flew high in the World Travel Awards, with Cathay Pacific named World Leading Airline Economy Class, and American Airlines as North America’s Leading Airline.

The 2010 World Travel Awards were presented at a ceremony in London last night, based on votes cast by more than 180,000 travel agents and other travel professionals worldwide.

oneworld Managing Partner John McCulloch said: “oneworld’s focus has always been on the quality rather than the quantity of our members, so it is very heartening to retain our record of being the only alliance ever to win this World Travel Award since it was first presented. It is a tremendous vote of confidence once again from some of the most knowledgeable people in the travel industry worldwide in what has been a breakthrough year for oneworld.”

The award is the latest landmark for oneworld in what is turning into a breakthrough year for the alliance. In other key milestones so far in 2010:

S7 Airlines, Russia’s leading domestic carrier – and one of the biggest and best international airlines in the Commonwealth of Independent States – will join oneworld a week from today, on Nov. 15.
India’s leading carrier Kingfisher Airlines became a oneworld member elect in June – followed by airberlin, Europe’s fifth biggest airline, in July.
American Airlines, British Airways, Iberia, Finnair and Royal Jordanian in July received long-awaited final approval for their application for anti-trust immunity across the Atlantic, with American, BA and Iberia launching their trans-Atlantic joint business in October.

Japan Airlines has been expanding its cooperation with its oneworld partners since reaffirming its membership of the alliance in February. In October it gained final approval from Japan’s authorities and tentative approval from the US regulators, to launch a joint business with American Airlines between Asia and North America from early next year. JAL has also substantially expanded codesharing with many other oneworld partners.
British Airways and Iberia are on track to complete their merger by the end of the year.
LAN Airlines celebrated its 10th anniversary as a oneworld member on June 1. Since joining, it has added to the grouping its affiliates in Argentina, Ecuador and Peru.
oneworld’s biggest airport co-location project in Asia was completed at the end of October, with British Airways moving alongside all the other on-line oneworld airlines in Terminal 2 at JAL’s Tokyo Narita international base. At the same time, oneworld positioned itself as the leading alliance at Tokyo Haneda, as it opened to scheduled international services, offering the airport’s widest international network and biggest domestic operation.

About oneworld

oneworld brings together some of the best and biggest names in the airline business – American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN, Malev Hungarian Airlines, Mexicana, Qantas and Royal Jordanian, and around 20 affiliates including American Eagle, Dragonair, LAN Argentina, LAN Ecuador and LAN Peru. Russia’s S7 Airlines will join the alliance on 15 November 2010 with airberlin and India’s Kingfisher Airlines both member elects. Between them, these airlines:

Serve almost 900 airports in nearly 150 countries, with some 9,500 daily departures.
Offer more than 550 airport lounges for premium customers.
Carry 340 million passengers a year.
Operate a combined fleet of almost 2,500 aircraft.
Generate around US$90 billion annual revenues in total.

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