The Russian airline S7 Airlines (formerly Sibir), the largest in Russia in terms of the number of passengers transported on domestic flights, has become a full member of the Oneworld global aviation alliance since Monday. “Joining the alliance will strengthen our financial position by increasing the income from passengers of other members of the alliance who will use the routes of our network,” says the CEO of S7 Airlines. In addition, according to him, membership in Oneworld will allow the airline to reduce costs: S7 will have access to the alliance's common resources.
The Oneworld alliance includes airlines such as American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN Airlines, Malev Hungarian Airlines, Mexicana, Qantas and Royal Jordanian, as well as about 20 affiliated airlines. Oneworld is the third of the existing global aviation alliances along with Star Alliance and SkyTeam.
S7 became the second Russian airline to join the international aviation alliance.
In 2006, Aeroflot, Russia's largest airline, became a member of the Sky Team alliance (Alitalia, CSA). They claim that the alliance's international route network has allowed the airline to attract new passengers. In 2006, she offered the Russian aviation alliance AiRUnion to join Star Alliance, but in 2008 AiRUnion went bankrupt.
S7 began to actively move towards international markets several years ago, when the company was still called Siberia. S7 was one of the first Russian airlines to switch from Russian to foreign technology, one of the first to introduce an electronic ticket instead of paper forms. About $5 million was spent on rebranding and renaming the company into S7, the purpose of these procedures was also an attempt to get rid of the image of a failed company. In 2004, as you know, suicide bombers blew up the Siberian aircraft - Tu-154. And the latest A310 crash in Irkutsk (in July 2006) happened at the very height of the rebranding campaign, which dealt an additional blow to the airline. Joining the Oneworld alliance imposes additional safety obligations on the S7.
However, it is difficult to blame the airline for the tragedy associated with the terrorist attack, says the head of the analytical department of AviaPort. And the difference between the provincial Novosibirsk airline Siberia, which flew five years ago, and the S7, which was seen a year and a half ago at the first meetings of British Airways, is obvious, he admits. Nevertheless,
the admission of S7 to the alliance is rather an advance, which in the future it will still have to justify,
experts say. Even before joining the Sky Team, Aeroflot had a serious international route network and easily integrated into the alliance. With S7, integration will be more difficult. Due to problems with obtaining commercial rights for international flights (flights between Russia and other countries are regulated by separate intergovernmental agreements), the S7 commercial network of international routes is not developed as Oneworld would like.
In addition to S7, two more Russian airlines, UTair and which have a well-developed route network, are of interest to international alliances. But the companies themselves are not yet talking about such plans. “There are examples of carriers that have entered into alliances, but this did not help them become successful. Therefore, our management is considering the option of joining the alliance from the angle of successful development in the future, ”the Transaero CEO is cautious. According to her, only if the airline sees that joining one of the global alliances will benefit the company, primarily passengers, Transaero will consider such a possibility. Now Transaero is developing bilateral cooperation with the world's leading carriers, increasing the number of agreements with them.
Aviation alliances are one of the main concepts that any tourist should know. I will try to briefly explain why this knowledge will help save on flights.
Three global aviation alliances
There are currently three global airline alliances in the world: SkyTeam (SkyTeam), Star Alliance (Star Alliance), Oneworld (Van World).
Airlines unite into alliances in order to reduce air travel costs, optimize business processes and increase passenger traffic. But to us ordinary passengers, all this is not entirely interesting.
Airlines within the alliance unify the following elements:
– booking system
— bonus programs for passengers
- introduce codeshare flights
- coordinate flight schedules.
To put it simply, when organizing connecting flights, it is easier, cheaper and more convenient to fly aircraft of one aviation alliance. When organizing my travels in Asia, the USA, Europe and other destinations, I always use flights only within the framework of one aviation alliance, thanks to which I have already saved a lot of money.
Let's take a closer look at all the alliances.
SkyTeam Airlines Alliance (SkyTeam)
It is the second largest aviation alliance in the world. I can say for sure that Russians and especially residents of the Far East most often use his services. After all, the alliance includes Aeroflot - Russian Airlines (Aeroflot - Russian Airlines) and KoreanAir (Korean Air), widely represented in Vladivostok.
In addition to them, the alliance includes the following airlines:
Europe:
Air Europa (AirEurope)
Air France (Air France)
Alitalia (Alitalia)
CSA - Czech Airlines (ČSA - Czech Airlines)
Asia:
China Eastern Airlines (China Eastern Airlines)
China Southern Airlines (Chinese Southern Airlines)
Garuda Indonesia Airways (GarudaIndonesia)
Vietnam Airlines (Vietnam Airlines)
Xiamen Airlines (Xiamen Airlines)
America:
Aerolineas Argentinas (Argentine Airlines)
Aeromexico (Aeromexica)
Delta Air Lines (DeltaEyrLines)
Africa and Middle East:
Kenya Airways (KenyaAirways)
Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudi Arabian Airlines)
Tarom (Tarom)
I think that SkyTeam (SkyTeam) is especially well suited for Russian passengers when organizing flights within Europe.
Oneworld Airlines Alliance (Van Werld)
So far it is the smallest aviation alliance, but it is rapidly gaining momentum. I have already flown with the alliance aircraft several times, and I especially want to note the advantageous offers that its customers can take advantage of.
In Russia, S7 Airlines, also actively represented in Vladivostok, has recently become a member of the alliance.
Other members of the alliance:
Europe:
Air Berlin (AirBerlin)
British Airways (British Airways)
Iberia (Iberia)
Finnair (Finnair)
Asia:
Cathay Pacific
JapanAirlines - JAL (Japan Airlines - JAL)
Malaysia Airlines (Malaysia Airlines)
SriLankanAirlines (Sri Lanka Airlines)
America:
American Airlines (American Airlines)
LANAirlines (LAN Airlines)
Mexicana (Mexican)
TAMLinhasAereas (TAM Airlines)
USAirways (US Airways)
Australia and Middle East:
Qantas (Kvontas)
Qatar Airways (Qatar Airways)
RoyalJordanianAirlines (Royal Jordanian Airlines)
In my opinion, Oneworld is very well suited for flights within Asia and the US.
Alliance of airlines Star Alliance (Star Alliance)
This is the oldest and largest aviation alliance in the world, but I put it in last place in my review. This is due to the fact that so far not a single Russian airline is participating in this alliance.
Alliance members:
Europe:
Adria Airways (Adria Airways)
Aegean Airlines (Aegean Airlines)
Austrian Airlines (Austrian Airlines)
Brussels Airlines (Brussels Airlines)
CroatiaAirlines (Croatia Airlines)
LOTPolishAirlines (LOT Polish Airlines)
Lufthansa (Lufthansa)
SAS - ScandinavianAirlines (SAS - Scandinavian Airlines)
Spanair (Spanair)
Swiss International Air Lines (SwissInterneshnlEyrlaynz)
TAP Portugal
Turkish Airlines (Turkish Airlines)
Asia:
Air China (AirChina)
Thai Airways (Thai Airways)
Singapore Airlines (Singapore Airlines)
All Nippon Airways (All Nippon Airways)
Asiana Airlines (AsianaAirlines)
Eva Air (EvaAir)
America:
AirCanada (Air Canada)
United Airlines (United Airlines)
Australia, New Zealand, Africa:
Air New Zealand (Air New Zealand)
Egyptair (Egyptair)
Ethiopian Airlines (Ethiopian Airlines)
South African Airways (South African Airways)
Alliance coverage allows you to plan flights with it to almost any part of the world.
The most important
Oneworld is the third largest aviation alliance in the world after Star Alliance and SkyTeam.
Voted Best Airline Alliance in 2004 by the Business Traveler Awards and named Leading Worldwide Airline Alliance for a four-year period in 2006 by the World Travel Awards. In the same year, it carried 321 million passengers in a total of about 2,300 aircraft.
After a major expansion in 2007, the alliance now serves over 700 destinations in nearly 150 countries worldwide with over 9,000 daily flights.
In 2010, the alliance brought together 11 of the world's leading airlines and over 20 affiliates, connecting more than 800 cities around the world by air. American Airlines is proud to be a founding member of this alliance. For six years in a row, the prestigious industry organization World Travel Awards has been recognized as the world's leading airline alliance.
The largest airline in Mexico and Central America has accepted an official invitation to join the alliance of the world's leading airlines. Oneworld is the only airline alliance that has full Australian coverage (Qantas) and the only alliance with a South American member (LAN Airlines).
The member airlines and their subsidiaries are distinguished by a high degree of cooperation in planning, ticket sales, loyalty programs, flight connections, code sharing, airport terminal sharing, which reduces costs and allows the exchange of experience. The members of the alliance also apply the same principles of work, as far as possible, pursue the same policies and use the same procedures, and cooperate in the technological field. Alliance members' costs are optimized through single purchases.
They offer their customers a network of routes around the world and a range of services that no single airline could offer. This makes air travel more convenient for passengers than ever before. Prices depend on the class of service (economy, business or first) and, what distinguishes this offer from others, on the number of continents visited, and not on the total duration of the route.
This greatly facilitates travel planning. The offer covers flights from all eleven alliance member airlines or their subsidiaries, covering nearly 800 destinations worldwide. Explorer is the best choice for anyone who is going on a trip around the world visiting all continents. It is important to note that Qantas, a member airline of the alliance, is the only member of the global air carrier alliance with an extensive network of domestic flights in Australia.
Members and affiliated members of the alliance:
American Airlines, American Eagle, Executive Air, AmericanConnection Chautauqua Airlines, Trans States Airlines, British Airways, BA CityFlyer, Comair, GB Airways, Loganair, Sun Air, Cathay Pacific, Dragonair, Finnair, Iberia, Air Nostrum, Japan Airlines, Japan Asia Airways, JALways, JAL Express, Japan Transocean Air, J-Air, LAN, LAN Peru, LAN Express, LAN Argentina, LAN Ecuador, Malév Hungarian Airlines, Mexicana, Qantas Airways, JetConnect, QantasLink, Eastern Australia Airlines, Southern Australia Airlines, Sunstate Airlines, National Jet Systems, Royal Jordanian.
Today there are several aviation alliances in the world, but only three of them have the greatest weight and significance. Founded in 1999, the Oneworld alliance is one of the top three. It consists of 45 airlines, both full members and affiliates.
The history of the formation of the "one world"
The Oneworld Alliance is the first aviation community to implement a centralized management system for its flights. The head office of the union is located in. The management is carried out by the Managing Partner and the Board, whose members are the heads of the airlines of the full members of the alliance. Today Oneworld operates regular flights to 152 countries to 992 destinations. The total passenger traffic is about 500 million people a year.
The official creation date of the alliance is February 1, 1999, when Oneworld began its operations. However, an agreement on this issue was adopted a year earlier, by five airlines: the American, Canadian, British national carrier, the Australian, which has the nickname "Flying Kangaroo" and the Hong Kong flagship Cathay Pacific. In 1999, the Spanish national airline and the Finnish flag carrier joined the newly formed carriers' union.
In 2009, the Mexican flagship, which had previously been a member of Star Alliance, joined the alliance, and a year later the Russian airline joined as a full member. In 2014, also after leaving Star Alliance, the Brazilian flagship also joined Oneworld.
Oneworld in one world of airports
Since one of the advantages of air alliances is priority check-in for a flight and a convenient location, they all try to accumulate in the main ones. The combined check-in counters of the alliance can be found at Barajas International Airport, Terminal 4 (Madrid, Spain), at the airport. J.F. Kennedy, Terminal 8 (New York, USA), Domodedovo (Moscow, Russia), Charles de Gaulle Airport (Paris, France) and others.
Unified corporate identity
The planes of the alliance members have a special logo on the front door. Also, the planes of the permanent participants are dressed in a special livery, which occupies almost the entire body of the aircraft and makes them visible at a great distance.
Oneworld Frequent Flyer Benefits
Depending on the status, passengers are provided with the following benefits:
- priority check-in, choice of seat in the cabin, extra baggage.
- access to superior lounges (more than 550 worldwide), accelerated security clearance.
- using the accumulated miles for traveling around the world, upgrading the class of service, the possibility of transferring the accumulated miles to another user.
Increasing the status of a user and increasing the list of privileges depends on the number of flights made by him in one calendar year.
oneworld was founded in 1999 and became the second international aviation alliance in the world after . Now it is the third largest alliance, uniting 13 airlines from different parts of the world. Russia is represented in oneworld by S7 Airlines, the second largest carrier in the country in terms of fleet and route network. The founding members of the alliance were American Airlines (USA), British Airways (UK), Canadian Airlines (Canada), Cathay Pacific (Hong Kong) and QANTAS (Australia).
The main thing you need to know about the oneworld alliance:
| oneworld Essentials | |
|---|---|
| Number of participants: | 13 airlines |
| Airlines from Russia: | S7 Airlines |
| Airlines of the CIS countries or Ukraine: | No |
| Flight directions: | 158 countries |
| Main regions: | Europe, Asia, America (South and North), Middle East |
| Number of airports hosting oneworld member flights: | 1012 airports |
| Average annual passenger traffic: | over 527 million passengers carried |
| Bonus programs: | each airline has its own program, but miles earned on flights of one can be spent on services provided by another |
| oneworld official website: | oneworld.com |
The oneworld alliance brings together 13 full members, 30 affiliated companies (included in the same group of companies with the main carrier) and 1 more airline currently claims to join the alliance as a full member. Here is a complete list of airlines that are now full members of the alliance:
| Oneworld member airlines | |
|---|---|
 | american airlines A country: USA; |
 | british airways A country: Great Britain; |
 | cathay pacific A country: Hong Kong; |
 | A country: Finland; |
 | Iberia A country: Spain; |
 | Japan Airlines A country: Japan; |
 | LATAM A country: Chile; |
 | Malaysia Airlines A country: Malaysia; |
 | QANTAS A country: Australia; |
 | Qatar Airways A country: Qatar; |
 | Royal Jordanian A country: Jordan; |
 | S7 Airlines A country: Russia; |
 | SriLankan Airlines A country: Sri Lanka; |
Although the Alliance loses in terms of the number of participants (26 airlines) and (20 airlines), but in terms of the total size of the fleet and the number of destinations, it is almost on a par with Skyteam. Largely due to the fact that the key airlines of the alliance are the huge fleet of American and the large Qatar Airways, British Airways, QANTAS and LATAM.
photo © Jose Louis maquieira
If we talk about airlines from Europe, then there are only three of them in oneworld:
- British British Airways
- Finnish;
- and Spanish Iberia.
Russia is represented in oneworld by S7 Airlines, which, before joining the international alliance, significantly improved the quality of service, updated its aircraft fleet, replacing obsolete Soviet aircraft with modern Airbus, Boeing and Embraer aircraft. Now the carrier fully complies with all international standards of safety and quality of service.
It is possible that over time oneworld will add another carrier from Russia, but at the moment the alliance announces its plans to expand its presence in other regions - especially in Africa and China. Oneworld is practically not represented there now, unlike Star Alliance and SkyTeam.
Oneworld Member Airlines Rewards Programs
There is no single-brand rewards program at oneworld, however, all participating airlines recognize the reward points of other alliance partners. It is enough to register in one bonus program of any of the members of the alliance and accumulate points from any flights made on the flights of oneworld members to this bonus account.
The accumulated points can also be spent on the services of any alliance airline. And here is the list of privileges that opens for members of the oneworld bonus program:
The main thing is that registration in several programs of different carriers is not required - it's convenient!
And one more distinctive feature of the oneworld alliance bonus program. You can accumulate points not only on flights of full members of the alliance, but also on affiliated airlines (usually subsidiaries of one or another carrier).
oneworld security & accidents
Today oneworld has very strict requirements for member airlines. Security standards are the same for the entire alliance. Before joining, each airline goes through a series of serious certification procedures. They show its compliance with the requirements and standards.
photo © Kirill message
Each air carrier applying for entry into oneworld undergoes an external audit. It includes checking the company for 118 items. Most of them are related to security.
We have searched international air crash databases to find all fatal accidents that have occurred on oneworld airlines.
- American Airlines has had two plane crashes since joining oneworld. Two planes with passengers were destroyed on September 11, 2001 during the terrorist attacks in New York. And in November of the same year, an Airbus A300 crashed - the tail stabilizer fell off the plane. 260 people on board died.
- In July 2007, an Airbus A320 of LAN Brasil (now LATAM Airlines Brasil) skidded off the runway while landing in Sao Paulo and crashed into a warehouse building. All 187 passengers were killed, as well as the crew and 12 people on the ground.
- In August 2011, a Boeing 737 of LAN Colombia (now LATAM Airlines Colombia) crashed while landing. 2 people died, 114 were injured. The cause of the disaster was a lightning strike on the plane.
- Two disasters in 2014 happened to the liners of Malaysia Airlines. In March, Boeing 777 flight MH370 disappeared from radar screens with 239 passengers on board. Even the approximate place where the plane crashed is still unknown. The second airliner (also a Boeing 777) was shot down in July of the same year in the sky over Ukraine. 298 people on board were killed.
Note! We have analyzed accidents with aircraft of one or another airline only from the moment it joined the alliance! We took into account only incidents that resulted in the death of passengers.
There have also been several crashes and cases of aircraft loss at different airlines, but they did without the loss of passengers or people on the ground. Accidents with S7 Airlines aircraft happened long before the airline joined the alliance.
oneworld development prospects
For all international alliances, one of the most promising markets now is Indian. Oneworld is not currently represented there. Also, there are no African airlines in the alliance or frequent flights to African countries. It is logical to assume that these are the main directions of the alliance's development.
photo © Roni Kokko
On the other hand, oneworld has a strong presence in most of Latin America thanks to LATAM. And in Asia by Malaysia Airlines and SriLankan.
It is possible that one or more airlines from Europe will join the alliance in the near future. And in 2018, the national airline of the Republic of Fiji, Fiji Airlines (formerly Air Pacific), is expected to join the alliance.
