Qatar Airways will formally join the oneworld alliance from the end of October, as the airline prepares to become the 11th operator of the A380.
From its first flights on October 30, Qatar will offer oneworld’s full range of services and benefits. The roughly 3 million members of Qatar Airways’ Privilege Club will benefit from reciprocity with other members of the alliance, which currently includes airberlin, American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Royal Jordanian and S7 Airlines.
With Qatar joining the alliance, more than 20 new destinations and five countries will be added to the oneworld network.
“More significantly, Qatar Airways will substantially strengthen the alliance’s customer offering by providing superior routing alternatives across many hundreds of city pairs,” oneworld said in a statement.”For example, passengers flying between Asia and Southern Europe or between Asia and Africa will now have convenient one-stop connections not previously available within the oneworld network.”
oneworld is undergoing the biggest expansion in its history with the addition of Malaysia Airlines earlier this year, the switch of Brazil’s TAM from the Star alliance, and the addition early next year of SriLankan Airlines.
With Qatar joining oneworld, the alliance will serve nearly 1,000 airports in more than 150 countries, carrying 480 million passengers a year on a combined fleet of almost 3,500 aircraft.
