Article from BTNews 13 FEBRUARY 2017
Aviation Club welcomes oneworld
London’s Institute of Directors, the home of the Aviation Club of the United Kingdom, last week welcomed Rob Gurney, recently appointed (last September) oneworld CEO.
Gurney, whose CV includes spells at British Airways, Qantas and Emirates, proved to be an entertaining and thoughtful speaker reminding members and guests that oneworld has ‘come of age’, celebrating 18 years. It was a revenue generator for its members.
In response to Willie Walsh’s comment that the alliances only had a life of another 10 years Gurney had this to say: “Looking to the future, global alliances must innovate and adapt if they are to remain relevant.
"Our aim is clear – to position oneworld as the undisputed alliance leader, offering an unmatched combined network by the best collection of travel providers, delivering magnetic alliance services and benefits to customers and that are simple for our carriers to deliver – while creating incremental value that our member airlines simply do not want to be without.”
When it was born, oneworld had five founding partners – American, BA, Cathay Pacific, Qantas and the former Canadian Airlines International, now into Star’s Air Canada. Membership now stands at 14 more airlines. airberlin, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, LATAM, Qatar Airway, Royal Jordanian, S7 and SriLankan – plus around 30 “affiliate” members.
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