from left: American Airlines Chairman and Chief Executive Tom Horton, Chairman of the oneworld Governing Board; Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker; IAG Chief Executive Willie Walsh and oneworld CEO Bruce Ashby during the announcement of the airline joining the oneworld alliance, in New York, yesterday.
New York: Qatar Airways is to join oneworld®, adding one of the world’s fastest growing and most highly rated airlines to the world’s leading quality airline alliance. Its election as a oneworld member designate was announced yesterday at a press conference in New York with senior executives of Qatar Airways and the alliance’s established member airlines in attendance.
Qatar Airways, 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 for any of the global airline alliances. It is also the second largest full service airline in the world not, until today, aligned to one of big global airline alliances.
The Doha-based airline’s implementation into oneworld is expected to take between 12 and 18 months.
The carrier is set to move into a brand new home in 2013 with the opening of the New Doha International Airport, designed to strengthen its position as a premium global hub with acapacity for 50 million passengers a year.
The Peninsula
