The
Doha-based airline’s election as a Oneworld member designate was
announced yesterday at a press conference in New York, attended by
senior executives of Qatar Airways and the alliance’s existing members.
Qatar Airways’ implementation into oneworld is expected to take between
12 and 18 months.
Qatar Airways currently serves 120 destinations
in 70 countries. The airline will substantially strengthen Oneworld by
providing routing alternatives across many hundreds of city pairs, via
Doha. The carrier is set to move into the New Doha International Airport
next year, which will eventually have a capacity for 50 million
passengers a year.
Oneworld is currently the smallest of the
three airline groups in terms of memberships numbers, with only 11
existing carriers compared to SkyTeam’s 18 and Star Alliance’s 27. It
does however, include several major national carriers including Qantas,
Cathay Pacific, JAL, British Airways and American Airlines, which have
the potential to boost Qatar Airways’ reach in Asia Pacific, Europe and
the US. The presence of LAN Airlines meanwhile, gives Qatar Airways a
foothold in the expanding Latin American market.
For Oneworld
however, Qatar Airways’ entry gives the alliance access to one of the
world’s fastest-growing route networks, a modern and expanding fleet,
and a major transit hub in the Gulf – something not offered by either
SkyTeam or Star.
Theresa
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