Second anniversary marked with appointment of vice-president sales to build revenue

oneworld*, the global airline alliance that “revolves around you”, marked its second anniversary today with the appointment of its first sales boss.

Maunu von Lueders is to take on the new post of Vice-President Sales, charged with building revenue earned through oneworld by its member airlines. As such, he will be responsible for driving the development of sales initiatives and systems for oneworld, ensuring all its sales activities deliver the customer promise and position it as the alliance of choice.

Between them, oneworld’s members generate almost US$50 billion a year in passenger sales - so even a 1 per cent increase overall as a result of oneworld activities would generate almost an additional US$500 million a year in revenues.

Overall, oneworld comprises 31 airlines - the eight full members Aer Lingus, American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, LanChile and Qantas, and their 23 affiliates. Between them, they offer services to 565 destinations in 133 countries, with their 270,000 employees operating fleets of more than 1,850 aircraft, carrying some 210 million passengers last year.

From 1 March, Maunu von Lueders will be part of the oneworld Management Company’s leadership team, based in Vancouver, reporting to the alliance’s Managing Partner Peter Buecking.

He joins from oneworld member Finnair, where he is currently based at its Helsinki headquarters as Vice-President Alliances and International Relations - responsible for the airline’s links with oneworld and bilateral partners. He has extensive experience in sales, marketing, operations, overseas and general management with Finnair, which he joined originally in 1965.

He is the fourth director-level appointment to the oneworld Management Company, following its establishment last summer. Vice-President Marketing John McCulloch and Vice-President IT Bob McNair joined last autumn, with Vice-President Airports Ricardo Milani recruited in December. All four Vice-Presidents report to Peter Buecking.

Announcing the new appointment, Peter Buecking said: “Maunu brings to this key role at a key time in oneworld’s development a wealth of international experience. His knowledge and skills of working in a number of markets with different cultures will be a great asset to our alliance.”

Since launching services and benefits on 1 February 1999, oneworld has expanded substantially, helped millions of travellers reach more places more easily, generated substantial additional revenue and cost savings for its member airlines, and firmly established itself as one of the world’s leading and most widely recognised alliance brands.

Full membership has doubled with founder members American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas joined by Finnair and Iberia in September 1999 and by Aer Lingus and LanChile in June last year.

In the alliance’s first two years of operation, its member airlines have:

Carried some 410 million passengers - equivalent to one in 15 of the world population.


Flown 4.5 billion miles - equivalent to around 25 return trips to the Sun.


Operated around four million flights - with a oneworld airline departure somewhere around the world every 14 seconds.



Peter Buecking said: “oneworld has travelled a long way since we first took to the air two years ago, and our third year in business promises to be the best year, with a near complete central team working on a whole range of initiatives that we will be rolling out in the coming months for the benefit of our customers and our member airlines.”