oneworld extends its lead as the most international global airline alliance

Hong Kong: oneworld™ – comprising Aer Lingus, American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, Finnair, Iberia, LanChile and Qantas – has extended its lead as the most international of the global airline alliances.

Latest statistics, based on flying programmes for the northern hemisphere summer flying season, as displayed in the OAG "industry bible" compilation of schedules, shows that oneworld's eight members currently serve 135 countries and territories. That is one more than in December, with Papua New Guinea added to the alliance's map as Qantas resumed its own services to the islands earlier this year.

It gives oneworld a lead of almost 10 per cent of its nearest competitor. The next most international alliance, Star, has seen its country count drop by two to 124 in recent months, while SkyTeam currently operates to 112 different states.

The number of destinations on the oneworld map currently stands at 571, with Burlington rejoining the network as American Eagle resumed services to the Vermont airport twice a day from Chicago O'Hare, and the regional launching flights to Boise, Idaho, from Dallas/Fort Worth.

The alliance's combined fleet has grown to almost 2 000 – up from 1 876 in January to 1 983 now, with growth of aircraft numbers at Qantas and the inclusion of TWA aircraft making up for reductions at most of the other carriers.

oneworld airlines are currently operating an average of 8 511 flights a day – equivalent to an arrival or departure every five seconds around the clock