oneworld CEO Bruce Ashby
Bruce Ashby is oneworld's CEO.The airline industry veteran took on the leadership of the leading global airline alliance in December 2010.
Before his oneworld appointment, he spent 16 years working for US airlines and then headed start-up carriers in India and the Middle East.
He entered the airline industry in 1987 as a consultant, joining United Airlines full-time in 1989 as Manager Operations Research. He remained with the airline until 1995, serving in several positions, including Vice-President Financial Planning and Analysis and Vice-President Finance and Treasurer.
He then moved to Delta Airlines, as Vice-President Marketing Development.
In 1996, he joined US Airways as Vice-President Financial Planning and Analysis. In 1997, he was named its Senior Vice-President Planning and then, in 1999, Senior Vice-President Corporate Development and IT. He served as US Airways' Senior Vice-President Alliances from 2003 to early 2005 - as the airline joined Star Alliance - before stepping up to become Executive Vice-President Marketing. At the same time, he also led US Airways Express, the group's regional operation, as its President, from 2003 to 2005. During this time, he played a central role in the restructuring of US Airways out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy and negotiating and planning its merger with America West.
As the merger was completed in late 2005, he moved to India to launch IndiGo as its CEO. After three years leading the Indian airline, he was recruited in late 2008 to serve as CEO of Saudi Arabia's SAMA Airlines.
Besides English, he speaks French, Italian and some Hindi. Aged 50 and with US citizenship, he is a graduate of Stanford University.
About oneworld
oneworld is the world’s premier global airline alliance. It brings together some of the best and biggest names in the airline business – airberlin, American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN, Qantas, Royal Jordanian and S7 Airlines plus around 20 affiliates including Austria’s NIKI, American Eagle, Dragonair, LAN Argentina, LAN Ecuador and LAN Peru. Malaysia Airlines will join later this year, with Kingfisher Airlines also a member elect. Mexicana is an inactive member.
Between them, oneworld’s current member airlines:
- Serve some 800 airports in 150 countries, with more than 8,750 daily departures.
- Offer more than 550 airport lounges for premium customers.
- Carry almost a million passengers a day on a combined fleet of nearly 2,500 aircraft.
- Generate around US$ 100 billion annual revenues in total.
oneworld enables its members to offer their customers more services and benefits than any airline can provide on its own. These include a broader route network, opportunities to earn and redeem frequent flyer miles and points across the combined oneworld network and more airport lounges. oneworld also offers more alliance fares than any of its competitors.
oneworld currently holds three of the leading international awards for airline alliances - named the Best Airline Alliance by Global Traveler in its GT Tested Reader Survey 2011 Awards for the second year running, the World’s Leading Airline Alliance in the 2011 World Travel Awards, retaining that title for the ninth consecutive year and the World’s Best Alliance in the 2011 debut Australian Business Traveller awards.