Fresh from signing its first new member for six years in the shape of Hungary’s Malev, oneworld is working on recruiting more carriers this year. The emphasis has changed after years of focusing on generating interline revenues and incremental sales for its members, says alliance managing partner John McCulloch. Incremental revenue has risen nearly 30% annually in recent years to reach almost $400 million in 2004.
“This time last year we made a conscious decision to go after filling white spaces on the map and investing again in IT,” he says. As with Star, the priorities are North Asia and India. In addition, Japan is a key market, where oneworld is close to Japan Airlines (JAL) which can come on board “if and when they decide to join”. In China, where Cathay Pacific has taken a stake in Air China, the “game is in play”, he says (see related story above).
The Indian market is changing so fast that oneworld is talking to the major players, but is unlikely to make a move just yet. “Nobody knows which way it is going to go so we’re watching and talking to the likes of Air-India, Indian Airlines, Jet Airways and Air Sahara,” says McCulloch.
Oneworld is studying its options in Latin America, but this region is less of a priority. Oneworld’s American Airlines, Iberia and LAN have strong markets in Latin America, so any new recruit there, with Mexicana and TACA among the names mentioned, must be a good fit.
The recruitment of Malev came about quickly, says McCulloch, after the deal between British Airways and Swiss to merge their frequent flyer schemes collapsed and Swiss turned to Lufthansa and Star. Malev was virtually the only remaining unaligned carrier in central and eastern Europe, he notes.
Source: Airline Business
