Oneworld Growth: Oman Air, More Lounge and In-Scope Alliance Upgrades

OneWorld Alliance plans to welcome its latest member, Aman Air, immediately after the end of this month.

OneWorld CEO Nathaniel Pieper said at an annual meeting of aviation trade group IATA in early June that Muscat-based airlines and alliances will sign the final paperwork at the end of this month, ending the operator’s years of membership process.

This means that any OneWorld Flier can easily access Oman Air’s roadmap, while loyalty members can expect to work with each other.

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Oman Air has added a second Gulf hub Muscat International Airport (MCT) after the Qatar Airways hub at the Hamad International Airport (DOH) in Doha. This means other travel options for flying people in the fast-growing Middle East. The airline has also added two new destinations to OneWorld: Khasab (KHS) in Oman and Lucknow (LKO) in India, and data displayed by Aviation Analytics company Cirium.

With Oman Airways, OneWorld will have 15 member airlines, including Fiji Airways, which will be fully joined in March.

More Oneworld lounges to come

Oneworld opened its first two league lounges in 2024 at Schiphol Airport (AMS) in Amsterdam and Incheon International Airport (ICN) near Seoul.

Pieper describes the lounge, both opening before he took over the alliance in April 2024, a proof of concept for Oneworld’s member airlines, each with its own standards.

Now, with the results, members of OneWorld want more lounges.

“The goal is to have another five, six, and 10 more [lounges] Over the next three to five years,” Piper said.

Oneworld competitors already operate global lounges. Skyteam Alliance operates four lounges with locations in the San Diego area of ​​Dubai, Sydney, Vancouver and Chile. Star Alliance has six lounges: Amsterdam, Buenos Aires, Guangzhou, Los Angeles, Paris and Rio de Janeiro.

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Pieper said Oneworld is looking for a market with a large number of member airlines but not a single dominant carrier. Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, Kempegowda International Airport (BLR) in Bangalore and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (BOM) in Mumbai are three potential candidates, and although Indian airport operators all tend to manage recliners, each posed their own challenges.

The lounge not only meets the needs of Oneworld’s existing customers.

“The lounge is a great way to figure out the word [about] This group of airlines…and increased their visibility. ” Pieper said.

Upgrade by the end of the year by alliance scope

OneWorld’s long-lost alliance-wide upgrade plan may eventually be completed by the end of this year. For at least 2020, the program will allow flyers to use points from any Member Loyalty Program to upgrade flights to any other Member Airlines.

For example, members of the American Airlines Aadvantage program can use their points to upgrade Qantas flights and vice versa.

Pieper said seven of OneWorld’s 14 members have participated in the upgrade program, and the remaining eight are expected to be online in the coming months.

“It’s important, we need to finish it,” he said, working to ensure that each airline member provides resources to implement the technology behind the scope upgrade.

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