Akira Mori to lead oneworld alliance sales drive in Asia

Akira Mori has joined the central team of oneworld^®, the premier global airline alliance, in the new role of Regional Market Development Manager Asia - leading a drive by the airline alliance to boost sales in Japan and other key markets throughout the region.

oneworld comprises 11 of the biggest and best names in the world airline industry, all international airline benchmarks for quality and value - American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, Iberia, Japan Airlines, Finnair, LAN Airlines, Malév Hungarian Airlines, Mexicana, Qantas and Royal Jordanian, plus 20 of their affiliate carriers.  Russia's leading domestic carrier S7 Airlines will join later on 15 November, with India's Kingfisher Airlines and Air Berlin to follow, as members elect.

These airlines serve some 900 destinations in almost 150 countries with 9.500 departures a day, carrying 340 million passengers a year worldwide.

Akira Mori's appointment comes as oneworld moves alliance activity up a gear in what is becoming a breakthrough year for the group.

In Japan, oneworld has become the leading airline alliance at Tokyo Haneda as it opened to international scheduled services at the end of October, offering the most extensive international network and the biggest domestic operation of any alliance at the airport.  At the same time, oneworld carriers completed the consolidation of their operations at Tokyo Narita, with British Airways moving alongside all its other oneworld partners in Terminal 2.

Last month also, Japan Airlines and American Airlines gained anti-trust immunity from Japan's Ministry of Infrastructure, Land and Transport for their proposed joint venture between Asia and North America, after tentative approval from the US authorities earlier this month.  This follows JAL's reaffirmation of its oneworld membership in February.

oneworld has also just launched a Japanese language version of its on-line booking tool for its oneworld Explorer round-the-world tickets.  oneworld was the first in the travel industry to sell any multi-airline round-the-world fare through the internet and now offers it in three different languages.

In other key developments for oneworld this year:

• American Airlines, British Airways and Iberia launched their transatlantic joint business this month, offering customers even more and better services and enabling oneworld to compete more effectively with its rival alliances.
• Russia's leading domestic carrier S7 Airlines is on track to join on 15 November, expanding substantially the alliance's network in the Commonwealth of Independent States.
• Germany's Air Berlin and India's Kingfisher Airlines both signed as oneworld members elect. These two recruits will also substantially expand the alliance's network in these two key regions.
• LAN Airlines celebrated its 10^th anniversary as a oneworld member on 1 June. Since joining, it has added to the grouping its affiliates in Argentina, Ecuador and Peru.
• oneworld added the World Airline Awards' World's Best Alliance title to the World Travel Awards' World's Leading Airline Alliance trophies it has won for the past seven years, as the only winner of that award since it was introduced in 2003.

Akira Mori joins the central oneworld team on secondment from member airline Japan Airlines, where he was most recently Assistant Vice-President International Affairs. In that capacity, he served as JAL's oneworld Project Director, co-ordinating oneworld activities within the airline, besides managing bilateral relationships between JAL and Cathay Pacific and other Asian partners.

During his 27-year career with JAL, he has served also as Director International Affairs and as Director Route Marketing and Sales.

In his new oneworld role, he will remain based in Tokyo, with responsibility for managing the alliance's commercial activities in key markets in Asia, working with its member airlines' teams throughout the region, reporting to oneworld Vice-President Commercial Nicolas Ferri.

Nicolas Ferri said: "Mori-san's knowledge of the alliance world and his broad experience in Asia make him uniquely qualified for this new oneworld role, working to facilitate the use of the alliance and its products in member airlines' own objectives, leading to revenue and share growth for them and oneworld in key locations throughout this region where he will become the face of oneworld."

About oneworld

With its members elect, oneworld airlines:

• Serve almost 900 airports in nearly 150 countries, with some 9.500 daily departures.
• Offer more than 550 airport lounges for premium customers.
• Carry 340 million passengers a year.
• Operate a combined fleet of almost 2.500 aircraft.
• Generate around US$90 billion annual revenues in total.

oneworld enables its members to offer their customers more services and benefits than any airline can provide on its own.  These include a broader route network, opportunities to earn and redeem frequent flyer miles and points across the combined oneworld network and more airport lounges.   oneworld also offers more alliance fares than any of its competitors. 

oneworld was named the World's Best Alliance in the 2010 World Airline Awards and has been voted the World's Leading Airline Alliance for the past eight years in the World Travel Awards.