Oneworld touts $5b revenues from alliance over first 10 years

By Graham Dunn

Global alliance Oneworld estimates it has generated revenues from its alliance fares and joint sales activities of $5 billion for its members over the first ten years of its existence.

The alliance highlighted the $5 billion revenue figure during an event to mark its tenth anniversary in Madrid.

"Around two-thirds of this - more than $3 billion - is regarded as "incremental" revenue. In other words, it would not have been generated if Oneworld did not exist," says the ten-strong airline grouping.

It says revenues from its alliance fares and sales activities in the past year are forecast to have reached more than $850 million - compared to $200 million achieved in the alliance's first year of operation in 1999.

Oneworld managing partner John McCulloch says: "While our member airlines' overall passenger revenues have risen by 101%, their revenues from interlining within Oneworld - from passengers connecting between flights operated by different Oneworld member airlines - have grown half as fast again, by 153%, reaching a cumulative $16.3 billion.

"In an industry where profit margins are thin at best - let alone at times of global economic turbulence- revenues and cost savings from Oneworld have made an increasingly important contribution to our member airlines' financial standings."

The alliance adds savings from identifiable joint procurement activities alone during the last ten years have totalled $320 million.

Oneworld comprises ten airlines - American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, Lan, Malev, Qantas and Royal Jordanian - while its eleventh member Mexicana is set to join this year.