4 days ago
Airline alliance Oneworld is playing catch-up in tech integration
The Oneworld alliance has set a goal of integrating each of its 15 member airlines into Oneworld's common technology platform by the end of the year.
Initially, Oneworld expects the platform to facilitate cross-airline boarding passes on multi-airline itineraries so that flyers can board flights using whichever airline's app they prefer.
Later, Oneworld expects the platform to facilitate cross-airline bag-tracking and lounge access, said Oneworld CEO Nat Pieper during a press briefing in late June.
Oneworld has lagged behind competitors SkyTeam and Star Alliance on cross-airline integrations. SkyTeam, for example, was already facilitating multi-airline check-in last summer on 95% of the group's global volume, CEO Patrick Roux said at the time.
Pieper said that progress has quickened over the past several months in the alliance, whose largest members are American Airlines, British Airways, Alaska Airlines, Qatar Airways and Japan Airlines. Oneworld's other members are Cathay Pacific, Fiji Airways, Finnair, Iberia, Malaysia Airlines, Oman Air, Qantas, Royal Air Maroc, Royal Jordanian and Sri Lankan Airlines.
Malaysia and Sri Lankan became the first two airlines to integrate into the Oneworld common platform last November. Currently eight airlines have integrated. Oneworld hasn't made the entire list public, but the largest airline to have done so is Qatar, Pieper said.
Crucially, he said, American and British Airways will be integrated by the end of the summer, boosting momentum and scale. American alone accounts for more than 43% of the seats on offer by Oneworld airlines this month, Cirium schedule data shows.
Pieper says that there is peer pressure between Oneworld CEOs to integrate into the platform.
"Once you build momentum, others are more willing to produce," he said.
