oneworld Airline Leaders Meet for First Time at American Airlines' Dallas/Fort Worth Home Base to Mark the Alliance's Biggest Re
November 02 2005 - 10:18AM
PR Newswire (US)
FORT WORTH, Texas, Nov. 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- American
Airlines is hosting Chief Executives from its seven partners in
oneworld(TM) today as the alliance's Governing Board meets for the
first time at the airline's Dallas/Fort Worth home base. The
meeting occurs as oneworld enters its biggest expansion drive since
it was launched more than six years ago. During their visit, the
CEOs -- whose airlines among them account for 16 percent of the
total world airline industry's capacity -- also saw DFW Airport's
new US$1.2 billion International Terminal D. American moved its
international operations at DFW into the new terminal last Saturday
-- and yesterday launched services from there to Osaka, Japan.
British Airways, the other oneworld carrier currently with its own
flights to DFW, also now operates from Terminal D. oneworld was
launched in February 1999 by founding partners American, British
Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas. Finnair and Iberia joined them
later that year, with Aer Lingus and LAN following in 2000. The
airlines' Chief Executives meet as the alliance's Governing Board
three times a year in various oneworld locations worldwide -- but
until now have not had the opportunity to gather in Dallas/Fort
Worth. It will be their first meeting since the alliance announced
that three carriers are lining up to join them, in oneworld's
biggest recruitment program to date: * Japan Airlines,
Asia-Pacific's largest airline and the third largest in the world
in revenue terms, which last week announced its decision to seek
membership. * Royal Jordanian, which last month became the first
carrier from the Middle East region to find a home in any of the
global alliances and will start offering oneworld services and
benefits near the end of 2006 or the beginning of 2007. * Hungary's
Malev, which signed a memorandum of understanding in May as its
first step towards joining. American's Chairman and CEO Gerard
Arpey said: "oneworld makes a significant contribution to American
Airlines. Our alliance partners transferred more than 1.5 million
passengers to our network in 2004, generating hundreds of millions
of dollars for American that we would otherwise not have earned and
enabling us to operate routes and frequencies that we could not
justify on our own. "This strengthens the role of DFW as a major
international hub and contributes significantly to the overall
economic well-being of North Texas, enhancing this region's
standing as an important center of international trade and cultural
exchange. We welcome the opportunity to say thank you to our
partners with typical Texas hospitality." oneworld Managing Partner
John McCulloch said: "A visit to the home base of oneworld's
biggest member airline has been long overdue -- but the time is
perfect for our grouping, as we welcome three new members to our
fold and the alliance's contribution to its existing partners
reaches an all-time high." oneworld's existing eight members and
their 12 affiliates currently serve 134 countries and 599
destinations. With JAL, Royal Jordanian and Malev, the oneworld map
would extend to 686 destinations in 140 countries and territories.
The existing members carried more than 240 million passengers in
2004. If the three candidate recruits are included, the total rises
to more than 305 million a year. The alliance currently offers more
than 8,000 departures a day. With the three recruits, that will
increase by another 1,000. The existing partners generated almost
US$60 billion in revenues in 2004. JAL, Royal Jordanian and Malev
will raise that by a third, to more than US$80 billion. oneworld
offers more alliance fare and sales products than any of its
competitors, earning almost US$600 million for its member airlines
in 2004, with the seven million passengers transferring between
oneworld members generating revenues totaling US$1.6 billion in the
year. oneworld activities generated one in every US$30 dollars
earned by its member airlines from passenger services in the past
year. The alliance enables its members to offer customers more
services and benefits than any airline can provide on its own,
keeping them more competitive. These include a broader route
network, opportunities to earn and redeem frequent flyer miles and
points across the entire alliance network and access to more
airport lounges. Since April this year, oneworld has been the only
alliance to enable customers to transfer between flights by all of
its member airlines using electronic tickets. oneworld has won more
top international awards for airline alliances than both its
competitors combined -- voted the world's best airline alliance for
the second year running by readers of Business Traveller magazine
in its 2005 poll and named the World's Leading Airline Alliance for
the second year running in the 2004 World Travel Awards, based on
votes cast by travel professionals from 80,000 agencies in more
than 200 countries. DATASOURCE: oneworld CONTACT: Al Becker,
Corporate Communications of American Airlines, +1-817-967-1577, or
; or Michael Blunt, Vice President Public Relations of oneworld,
+44-20-8738-5173, or cell, +44-7789-612712, or Web site:
http://www.aa.com/
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