oneworld voted World's Leading Airline Alliance for sixth year running

04 dicembre 2008

oneworld® has been named the World's Leading Airline Alliance for the sixth year running in the World's Travel Awards - described by the Wall Street Journal as the "travel industry's equivalent of the Oscars".

oneworld has retained the award for leading airline alliance every year since this category was introduced in 2003.   oneworld is also a three-time winner of the Best Airline Alliance title from Business Traveller magazine - which makes it the winner of more leading industry awards than any other alliance.

The alliance's members also received more nominations as the awards' World's Leading Airline than carriers from its competitor groupings, in American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, LAN and Qantas.

oneworld members also won more of the scheme's regional awards than carriers from other alliances.  Cathay Pacific was named Asia's Leading Airline, with Japan Airlines a runner-up.  Qantas was voted Australasia's Leading Airline and American Airlines taking top honours as North America's Leading Airline.

LAN was the only airline in any alliance nominated as South America's Leading Airline, and Royal Jordanian the only carrier in any alliance nominated as the Middle East's Leading Airline.  British Airways and Iberia was both nominated as Europe's Leading Airline.

The World Travel Awards, presented last night at a gala ceremony in the Caribbean's Turks and Caicos, are based on votes cast by some 170.000 travel professionals and agents 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 six years ago.  It is a tremendous vote of confidence once again from some of the most knowledgeable people in the travel industry worldwide."  

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, Malév Hungarian Airlines, Qantas and Royal Jordanian, and around 20 affiliates including American Eagle, Dragonair, LAN Argentina, LAN Ecuador and LAN Peru.  Mexicana and its affiliate Click Mexicana will join the alliance in 2009.   Between them, these airlines:

  • Serve almost 700 airports in nearly 150 countries, with more than 9.000 daily departures.
  • Offer nearly 550 airport lounges for premium customers.
  • Carry some 320 million passengers a year.
  • Employ 250.000 people.
  • Operate almost 2.500 aircraft.
  • Generate more than US$100 billion annual revenues.

It is the only alliance with any airlines based in Australia, South America or Asia's Middle East.

The alliance enables its members to offer their customers more services and benefits than any airline can provide on its own.  These include a broader route network, opportunities to earn and redeem frequent flyer miles and points across the combined oneworld network and more airport lounges.