oneworld ENTERS NEW PHASE OF DEVELOPMENT WITH FIRST APPOINTMENTS TO CENTRAL TEAM

The central management team charged with driving the future development of the oneworld global airline alliance is now taking shape with the first level of appointments announced by Managing Partner Peter Buecking.

The "alliance that revolves around you", which aims to make air travel around the world easier and more rewarding, comprises founders American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways and Qantas, and more recent recruits Aer Lingus, Finnair, Iberia and LanChile.

It celebrated its first anniversary in February with news of the establishment of a central management office, the oneworld Central Management Company Ltd. (oMC), under Peter Buecking, formerly Sales and Marketing Director at Cathay Pacific.

His first recruit is Kathy Mullen, who is already working alongside him as Global Project Director. She has moved from Canadian Airlines, where she was Manager Alliances, responsible for all relationships with other airlines. In her new role, she will be responsible for coordinating the delivery of all new initiatives across all oneworld member airlines and manage people, legal and administrative matters for the oneworld central management company.

John McCulloch joins the team this week as Vice-President Marketing. He moves from HSBC, one of the world's largest financial institutions, where he was Head of Group Marketing based in their London headquarters, responsible for implementingits recent global rebranding. A former manager with Cathay Pacific Airways, in his new role he will be charged with developing the oneworld brand and delivering on the brand promise, coordinating marketing support across the member airlines, generating new sources of revenue and lower cost for the alliance, web development and related areas.

Completing the trio will be Bob McNair, who will take up his post as Vice-President Information Technology on July 1, moving from Qantas, where he is currently General Manager eCommerce at the airline’s Sydney headquarters. In his new role, he will provide leadership and coordination of alliance members’ IT resources to deliver the technology required to meet infrastructure and business initiatives.

Analysts and support personnel are also joining from this month, and the team should be complete by this autumn.

Later this month, the unit will move into its own offices, in downtown Vancouver.

Peter Buecking said: "I am very excited to have been able to attract people of this caliber to help ensure that oneworld develops as the winning alliance, for our customers and our airline members. We scoured the world to find the best candidates and, with Kathy, John and Bob we have identified managers with tremendous track records. I’m delighted to welcome them aboard."

Notes

1.  The oMC will lead the work currently spread across project teams drawn from the member airlines, achieving greater cost efficiency while speeding development times, monitoring quality standards and ensuring a shared vision.
2.  Peter Buecking joined Cathay Pacific Airways in 1982 as Marketing and Sales Manager after working in senior management positions at Canadian Pacific Airlines and Budget Steel Company. Subsequent posts at Cathay Pacific have included Vice-President Canada, Vice-President USA and Latin America, General Manager and Director AFF (Asian Frequent Flyer) based in Singapore, and General Manager In-flight Services, based in Hong Kong. He was appointed the airline’s Director Sales and Marketing in November 1997.
3.  Kathy Mullen served with Canadian Airlines for 20 years in a variety of areas. In her last job there, as Manager Alliances, she was responsible for all code-share activities - and as its oneworld Project Director. Canadian was a founder member of oneworld, but left on May 31 this year following its purchase by Air Canada. Western Canada is her home. She was schooled at Simon Fraser University and the British Columbia Institute of Technology. Married to a lawyer, they have a 13-year-old son.
4.  John McCulloch, a Scot, joined the Swire Group after graduating in law from Cambridge University. He spent 15 years there, mainly with its Cathay Pacific subsidiary, working in Hong Kong, Australia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Japan and Canada, covering jobs in marketing, sales, country management, distribution, yield management, operations and technology. He left Cathay as marketing and sales manager Japan to emigrate to Canada in 1996 and joined HSBC as Vice-President Marketing for Canada, moving to London two years later as Head of Group Marketing. Charged with establishing a universal brand for the HSBC Group worldwide, including the rebranding of the Midland Bank in the UK, he managed one of the largest corporate rebranding programmes yet undertaken worldwide. His wife is Japanese, which John speaks, along with Bahasa Indonesian, and they have three children. A keen sportsman, he ran the London Marathon last year in 3 hours 40 minutes.
5.  Bob McNair joined Qantas in 1973. As its General Manager eCommerce, he has responsibility for the technology support and development of all the airline’s commercial web-based initiatives. He previously took charge of Qantas’ Year 2000 IT program. He has also served with Qadrant International, an IT product and consulting joint venture between Qantas and DMR Consulting, as Deputy Manager Operations and Regional Director Europe, based in Dublin. A native of Canada, he completed his studies in computing at Manitoba Institute of Technology. A fluent French speaker, he is married with two children.
6.  Vancouver was chosen as the base for the team as a convenient crossroads for oneworld members and to underline the alliance’s commitment to continue to offer the Canadian market choice and high quality services.
7.  oneworld airlines serve 559 destinations in 134 countries, with a combined fleet of 1,852 aircraft. In its first year of operation, its member airlines:
•  Carried almost 200 million passengers - equivalent to one in 30 of the world population.
•  Flew 2.2 billion miles (3.5 billion kms) - equivalent to around 12 return trips to the Sun.
•  Operated around two million flights - with an oneworld airline departure somewhere around the world every 14 seconds.
1.  oneworld enables each carrier to offer customers services and products that it cannot provide by itself, responding to changes in the global airline marketplace. These include:
•  Closer linking of the member airlines’ frequent flyer programs, enabling members of the frequent flyer programs to earn and redeem miles on any eligible flights and fares of the oneworld alliance airlines. Qualifying flights also count towards frequent flyer tier status. (American Airlines AADVANTAGE and British Airways Executive Club members can earn and redeem miles and earn tier status credit on all eligible flights except each other’s direct routes between Europe and the Americas).
•  Access to the member airlines’ 300 plus lounges for eligible members of their frequent flyer schemes and customers, no matter on which of the oneworld airlines they are travelling, along with priority check-in and preferred seating and boarding.
•  Smoother transfers for passengers travelling across the global networks of the oneworld carriers.
•  Greater support, with employees of each airline equipped to assist and care for customers travelling with any of the oneworld airlines
•  Top tier frequent flyer cards with common branding, to ensure members receive appropriate recognition and privileges regardless of which airline they are flying.
•  Greater value, through a range of round-the-world products, including oneworld Explorer fares.