After its extended spell in the shadows, the oneworld alliance plans to step up its presence, kicking off with news of a massive corporate contract win, a host of new initiatives and promises of broader codesharing to come.
By its own admission, oneworld has kept a low profile while its two lead partners American Airlines and British Airways sought antitrust immunity. "We didn't want to hurt the case," says the alliance's managing partner Peter Buecking, adding that with immunity now off the agenda oneworld is "going to crank up the noise".
Following a June meeting of the oneworld chief executives in Hong Kong, Buecking revealed that the alliance has sealed a multinational contract from IT giant Sun Microsystems worth $40 million a year and won against Star's United Airlines. It adds to several contract wins, notably in Asia. Deals worth $45 million have been signed with 14 Japanese companies this year. "Our most effective selling is into markets where the members are not significant individually, but we are together," says Buecking, adding that another target could be to challenge Star in Singapore.
Oneworld is pitching the "quality" and "consistency" of its membership as key selling features. Buecking points out that the grouping aligned its revenue management early on and has a "straight-rate pro rata system" so that each member knows in advance what they will get for their leg of a journey. Hong Kong also saw a commitment toe-ticket interlining.
Meanwhile, codesharing is being stepped up across the alliance, including for the first time between Qantas and LanChile on Sydney to Santiago and beyond. American and Finnair have already applied for antitrust immunity, while BA and Iberia also are exploring co-operation. Further opportunities should flow from a new US-Hong Kong bilateral, allowing Cathay Pacific to put American's codes on its US flights.
New members are not a priority, although Buecking identifies some holes in the network. "Central Europe bothers us the most," he says, with Swiss the likely candidate to fill the gap if it can seal a deal with the "key European partners". Privately, members admit that a final decision, albeit negative, on the American/BA antitrust application has finally freed the alliance to commit its energies elsewhere. As part of this new focus, high-level groups are to investigate co-operation in five areas: cargo, engineering, insurance, flight training and revenue accounting.
Source: Airline Business
