Qatar Airways will become the first Gulf carrier to join an airline alliance when it joins the oneworld alliance next year. Top executives from Qatar Airways, American Airlines, British Airlines and oneworld made the announcement at a press conference at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York City on Oct. 8.
Those executives included Akbar Al Baker, Qatar Airways CEO; Tom Horton, American Airlines’ chairman and CEO, who also serves as chairman of the oneworld governing board; Willie Walsh, chief executive of IAG, parent of British Airways and Iberia; and Bruce Ashby, CEO of oneworld. oneworld airlines include airberlin, American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines. LAN, Qantas, Royal Jordanian and S7 Airlines. Expected to join soon are Malaysia Airlines and SriLankan Airlines.
Qatar Airways, which has been named Airline of the Year for the past two years by the Skytrax independent airline quality rating agency, is the first of the three major airlines based in the Gulf to sign with a global airline alliance. The other major carriers in the region include Emirates and Eitihad Airways. Qatar Airways also is the second largest full-service airline in the world that had not aligned itself with one of the major airline alliances until now. The airline, based in Doha, Qatar, is expected become a full member of oneworld in the next 12 to 18 months.
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