American Airlines has
hosted Chief Executives from its seven partners in oneworld as the
alliance’s Governing Board met for the first time at the airline’s
Dallas/Fort Worth home base.The meeting occurs as oneworld enters its
biggest expansion drive since it was launched more than six years ago. During their visit, the CEOs—whose airlines among them account for
16 percent of the total world airline industry’s capacity—also saw DFW
Airport’s new US$1.2 billion International Terminal D.
  American moved its international operations at DFW into the new terminal
last Saturday—and yesterday launched services from there to Osaka, Japan.
British Airways, the other oneworld carrier currently with its own flights to
DFW, also now operates from Terminal D.
  It will be their first meeting since the alliance announced that three
carriers are lining up to join them, in oneworld’s biggest recruitment program
to date; Japan Airlines, Asia-Pacific’s largest airline and the third largest in the world in revenue terms, which last week announced its decision to seek membership; Royal Jordanian, which last month became the first carrier from the Middle East region to find a home in any of the global alliances and will start offering oneworld services and benefits near the end of 2006 or the beginning of 2007; Hungary’s Malev, which signed a memorandum of understanding in May as its first step towards joining.

  American’s Chairman and CEO Gerard Arpey said: “oneworld makes a
significant contribution to American Airlines.  Our alliance partners
transferred more than 1.5 million passengers to our network in 2004,
generating hundreds of millions of dollars for American that we would
otherwise not have earned and enabling us to operate routes and frequencies
that we could not justify on our own.
  “This strengthens the role of DFW as a major international hub and
contributes significantly to the overall economic well-being of North Texas,
enhancing this region’s standing as an important center of international trade
and cultural exchange.  We welcome the opportunity to say thank you to our
partners with typical Texas hospitality.”
  oneworld Managing Partner John McCulloch said: “A visit to the home base
of oneworld’s biggest member airline has been long overdue—but the time is
perfect for our grouping, as we welcome three new members to our fold and the
alliance’s contribution to its existing partners reaches an all-time high.”
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