"oneworld has been named the world's leading airline alliance for the fifth year running in the World's Travel Awards - described by the Wall Street Journal as the "travel industry's equivalent of the Oscars".The award is the culmination of a record year for the grouping, with 11 carriers joining, expanding its network to around a hundred more destinations, and with more co-location at key airports to smooth customers' journeys and more revenues than ever before generated for its member airlines.
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 has retained the award for leading airline alliance every year since this category was introduced in 2003.
In the top worldwide categories, besides oneworld take the leading alliance title, member airline British Airways was named the world's leading airline overall for the third year running, Cathay Pacific was named as being the world's leading first class airline, American Airlines was honoured for the world's leading economy class.
Cathay Pacific had already been named by the awards as Asia's leading airline, American as North America's leading airline, LAN as South America's leading airline and Qantas as Australasia's leading airline.
oneworld Vice-President Corporate Communications Michael Blunt said: "oneworld is delighted to have received this tremendous vote of confidence once again from some of the most knowledgeable people in the travel industry worldwide. It reflects the quality of our airline members and our commitment to deliver alliance customer service better than any one else. It's a wonderful way to end what has been a record breaking year for the alliance."
oneworld last month completed its biggest expansion since its launch eight years ago, with the addition of China's Dragonair, following the recruitment earlier this year of Japan Airlines and five of its affiliates, plus Malév Hungarian Airlines, Royal Jordanian, LAN Argentina and LAN Ecuador. Together, they expanded the alliance's network to some 700 destinations in almost 150 countries.
Also last month, the grouping opened its first lounge worldwide developed as an alliance project, at Los Angeles, following the consolidation earlier this year of its airlines' operations at new oneworld hub Tokyo Narita.
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, plus some 20 affiliates. China's Dragonair joined as an affiliate on 1 November.
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. oneworld is the only alliance to enable passengers to fly throughout its network, on any combination of carriers, using just electronic tickets."
Source: Malév.hu
14.12.2007