oneworld named best airline alliance by Global Traveler - again

01 December 2011

oneworld® has been named Best Airline Alliance for the second year running by Global Traveler in the leading business travel magazine's GT Tested Reader Survey 2011 Awards, announced today.

oneworld is also current holder of the World Travel Awards' World's Leading Airline Alliance title, retaining that award for the eighth year running.

oneworld's individual member airlines also flew high in Global Traveler's GT Tested reader survey. British Airways was awarded Best Airline for Business Class and American Airlines took the trophy for Best Domestic First Class, as well as several wine awards. LAN Airlines was voted Best Airline in Central/South America.

The awards were presented at a ceremony in Los Angeles this evening, with the oneworld trophy collected on behalf of the alliance by Vice-President Commercial Stephen Usery, who said: "oneworld has always aimed to be the world's most preferred alliance, in particular for frequent international business travellers, so we are thrilled that they have judged us to be the best in this prestigious survey.  The teamwork among our member airlines is the open secret to our success. We intend to build continually on that strong foundation, knowing that our customers - and Global Travelers readers - will accept nothing less."

Of the Best Airline Alliance award, Global Traveler Publisher and CEO Francis X Gallagher said: "It is an honour to award oneworld Best Airline Alliance for the second year in a row. The alliance and its member airlines consistently rank in our survey, which is a clear indication of their leadership in the industry. Congratulations."

Its Best Airline Alliance award crowns a momentous year for oneworld, which has seen:

  • Russia's leading domestic carrier S7 Airlines complete its first full year as a member of the alliance.
  • India's leading carrier Kingfisher Airlines and Europe's sixth biggest airline airberlin progress towards their addition to the group early next year.
  • Malaysia Airlines, one of South East Asia's leading carriers, sign as a member elect, to join late next year.
  • American Airlines, British Airways and Iberia roll out more customer benefits as they completed the first year of working together through their joint business across the North Atlantic.
  • The launch of a similar joint business between American Airlines and Japan Airlines across the North Pacific and the signing of another cooperation agreement between American and Qantas, both of which will also deliver more customer benefits.
  • The roll out of oneworld Global Support services at more key alliance hubs around the world, including in the coming weeks at Sydney and Tokyo. These units are manned by employees from all the group's on-line airlines, tasked with delivering the best possible service for customers transferring between oneworld member airline flights and ironing out snags before customers are even aware of them.

Global Traveler conducted a survey of it readers from 1 January 2011 to 31 August 2011 with open-ended questions for the best in many categories of business and luxury travel.  The survey was ducted in the magazine, as an insert to subscriber copies, as a direct mail questionnaire, on-line and emailed during the period in question. Only those questionnaires where more than 50 per cent of the questions were completed were counted.  The 2011 survey generated results from more than 36,000 completed questionnaires under these criteria.  Responses from employees of the magazine or individuals associated with the travel industry were not accepted.  It is the eighth year running that Global Traveler has conducted its GT Tested Survey.

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 - American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN, Malév Hungarian Airlines, Mexicana, Qantas, Royal Jordanian and S7 Airlines, and around 20 affiliates including American Eagle, Dragonair, LAN Argentina, LAN Ecuador and LAN Peru.  airberlin, India's Kingfisher Airlines and Malaysia Airlines are on track to join in 2012.  Between them, these airlines:

  • Serve some 900 airports in nearly 150 countries, with more than 10,000 daily departures.
  • Offer more than 500 airport lounges for premium customers.
  • Carry a million passengers a day on a combined fleet of more than 2,500 aircraft.
  • Generate more than 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.