OneWorld, a leading alliance of airlines, said on Tuesday it was in talks with Indian carriers to expand its global footprint as it could not afford to ignore emerging markets like India and China.
"It is absolutely imperative that we have members from India and China. We are in talks with some Indian carriers. They have to decide when to join," OneWorld's Managing Partner John McCulloch told PTI on the sidelines of the International Air Transport Association's Annual General Meeting here.
"We cannot afford to ignore these markets," he said, but refused to name any Indian airline with whom discussions were going on.
However, the names which are doing rounds are Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines. The latter is yet to start its international operations, which is a major requirement for joining an alliance. The merged Air India has already been invited to join its competing Star Alliance.
OneWorld brings together some of the biggest names in the airline business, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, Qantas and Royal Jordanian.
Between them, these carriers serve almost 700 airports in nearly 150 countries, with more than 9,000 daily departures.
They carry some 320 million passengers a year and operate almost 2,500 aircraft, while generating over $100 billion annual revenues.
Referring to the expansion in its activities, McCulloch said the alliance would be developing activities in several airports across the world, including Brussels where Jet Airways has already set up its international hub.
OneWorld is also on track to launch an on-line booking facility in the next few months, which would enable a passenger travelling to multiple destinations across the globe to finalise his travel plans, book tickets and make the payment without going through any agent.
"This is among the most popular multi-airline tickets worldwide, enabling passengers to travel right around the world using the flights of any of OneWorld's ten member airline and 20 or so affiliates, who together serve some 700 destinations in approaching 150 countries", its Vice-President Commercial Nicolas Ferri said.
Until now, while travellers have been able to plan through the Internet their journeys using alliance or multi-airline fares, they have had to contact airlines or travel agents to complete their bookings and pay for them.
With the launch of this new booking tool, they will for the first time be able to complete this entire process on-line, via oneworld.com or the website of their preferred oneworld airline. Travel agents worldwide will also have access to this facility, Ferri said.
The first phase of this project -- enabling customers to plan their journeys -- was rolled out late in 2007. "The project should be completed in the coming months with the addition of the booking and payment facility," Ferri said, adding this would make OneWorld the first in the world to introduce such a system.
The OneWorld chief executive McCulloch said the alliance's partner airlines had generated record revenues from sales activities in 2007 -- when the grouping completed its biggest expansion yet.
Eight million passengers were transferred between the airlines' flights during the year, leading the revenues generated by OneWorld fares and sales activity totalling over $725 million, a 10 per cent increase.
The alliance, McCulloch said, also maintained its focus on supporting the airlines' efforts to reduce costs. He claimed that based on latest full year results from members of all three alliances, OneWorld members averaged an operating margin of 6.4 per cent -- against 5.8 for Star Alliance and 5.6 for SkyTeam.
"In a business where operating margins are thin at best -- let alone at a time of soar away fuel prices - revenues and cost savings from OneWorld make an increasingly important input to our member airlines' financial standings, and we are committed to increasing the contribution the alliance makes", McCulloch added.
