Oneworld CEO on New Lounges, Tech Upgrades, and Where the Alliance Falls Short

Airline alliances are often seen as slow-moving and bureaucratic, but oneworld has been unusually active. Under CEO Nat Pieper, now 14 months into the role, the alliance has added members and expanded its regional influence — most recently with Oman Air joining as its 15th member.

The Muscat-based carrier joins Qatar Airways and Royal Jordanian in giving oneworld an even more dominant position in the Middle East.

Speaking at a recent media briefing, Pieper defended concerns about possible over-representation. He argued the move “clearly cemented oneworld as the alliance of choice in that region” and commended the Middle East for investing in global business and global tourism projects. “Having three core members gives us an advantage that we will promote,” Pieper added.

For all its Gulf clout, oneworld has glaring absences elsewhere. As well as South America and Sub-Saharan Africa, it lacks member airlines based in two of the world’s most important aviation markets: India and mainland China. Rival Star Alliance includes Air India and Air China among its members, while SkyTeam has China Eastern and Xiamen Airlines. 

Pieper didn’t dodge the criticism. Describing the situation as “a classic question of depth versus breadth,” the alliance chief said its 15 airlines already offer 95% coverage of global demand. He did however keep the door open for possible new entrants: “[India and mainland China] are two white spaces that we would welcome and are interested in, and are always studying the potential for further members. 

“I would never say never in terms of not adding another, but I think our primary focus is really to deepen the commitment and the cooperation that our airlines generate with each other. That’s a message I’ve heard loud and clear from each of my 15 airline CEO bosses.”

On paper, IndiGo could be a prime candidate. India’s largest carrier launched long-haul services to Europe earlier this week as it begins its next phase of rapid expansion. However, speaking at the Skift India Forum in March, Pieter Elbers, IndiGo CEO, said alliance membership wasn’t a priority for the airline. Oneworld previously had Kingfisher Airlines flying the flag as an India-based member before the carrier collapsed in 2012.  

Update for the U.S.

For all of its coverage gaps, one country that definitely isn’t short of oneworld members is the United States. Anchored by founding member American Airlines, the group also includes Alaska Airlines. Hawaiian Airlines is set to become the alliance’s 16th member following its 2024 merger with Alaska – but don’t expect any meaningful developments this year. 

“That’s really in the hands of our Alaska colleagues,” Pieper explained. “From our perspective, any time a new airline joins the alliance, the tasks are in the thousands. The Microsoft project list is beyond comprehension.”

The two airlines are still working to merge their passenger service systems (PSS), the backbone of digital and customer operations. “If we were to accelerate and bring Hawaiian in now, before Alaska and Hawaiian have merged their PSSs… you’d have to do that twice, and it just doesn’t make sense.” The oneworld chief suggested Hawaiian’s ascension to the club will come next year, adding: “I would expect that’s a 2026 item.”

Before joining oneworld, Pieper was SVP of fleet, finance, and alliances at Alaska Airlines. Rather appropriately, he oversaw the carrier’s own entry into the organization in March 2021.

Bridging Digital Divides

Beyond expansion, one of Pieper’s biggest priorities is digital integration – an area that often lags across all three of the global alliances. Key to the organization’s value proposition is a consistency of experience across its 900-destination network.

The goal is for travelers to get the same experience whether they fly on a single airline or several. Seamless consistency between individual airline apps is a further priority. “We want the guests to be able to use their technology of choice… but a quality of experience across the entire journey is so important and the key to that is having a living backbone of data, a digital network that each member airline can use to facilitate those connections across every facet of the journey,” said Pieper.

So far, around nine member airlines have been digitally linked into a new oneworld framework. This enables the exchange of mobile boarding passes and other essential data. The goal is full integration of all 15 members by year-end. 

“Once the digital network is up and running… then you can really start moving forward with what we think would be industry-leading offerings,” Pieper added, citing areas such as digital bag tracking and integrated lounge access.

Where Next for Oneworld Lounges?

On the topic of airports, the CEO also provided an update on oneworld’s relatively new push into shared lounges. The alliance opened two branded spaces over the last year: one in Seoul, and the other in Amsterdam. “Both lounges have fantastic NPS scores,” said Pieper.

Despite an earlier goal of up to 10 new lounges in five years, progress has been incremental. “Am I going to be cutting a ribbon in the next 30 days? No,” Pieper admitted. “But there are a handful of opportunities that I’m very excited about.”

Speaking to Skift last year, Pieper revealed that Jakarta, Rome, and Istanbul were on the list of candidate cities. 

“We have a good couple of folks allocated to that task, flying all over the place, meeting with airport authorities. As you would expect, every market is different. Every airport is different, but we see it as a good opportunity to deliver value across the membership and it’s something that we want to open more.”