Fiji Airways will transition from being the Oneworld Alliance’s connecting partner to its 15th full member carrier.
The carrier, which joined the Oneworld Connect programme in 2018 as its first member, is expected to complete the transition by the middle of 2025. Oneworld chief executive Nat Pieper says the addition of Fiji Airways “will strengthen our position as the premier airline alliance for international global travellers”.
Speaking at a Oneworld briefing during the IATA AGM in Dubai, Fiji Airways chief executive Andre Viljoen says: “While we have been a Oneworld Connect member since 2018, attaining full membership has always been our goal.”
The addition of Fiji Airways comes as the alliance – which is celebrating its 25th anniversary – prepares to induct Oman Air as its newest member this year. The Muscat-based carrier will also be Oneworld’s third Middle Eastern member carrier, following Qatar Airways, as well as Royal Jordanian Airlines.
The alliance also inducted Alaska Airlines in 2021, while Royal Air Maroc became its first African member when it joined in 2020.
Asked at the briefing if Oneworld is looking to continue adding members, Pieper points out that while the alliance is “talking to everyone”, it is focused on “quality versus quantity” of membership.
“We’ve grown from four members [25 years ago] to 15 members now, and we still have white spaces [in the network]. One way to fill those white spaces is to attract new carriers. The other way to fill those white spaces is to see if our existing members can cover that by adding flights by reallocating flights,” he says.
Pieper says the alliance’s “preference” would be “to do more” with its members.
“[We] focus more on quality versus quantity, and so we won’t just go grab an airline that covers a big white space unless they have standards from a product perspective and meet the strong foundation that we’ve built here today,” he adds.
