FTE Global 2026: oneworld CEO Pushes to Close the Gaps Across 15 Member Airlines
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During Thursday’s closing keynote at FTE Global, oneworld Alliance CEO Ole Orvér outlined how the alliance wants to make travel more consistent across its 15 member airlines by improving technology, aligning policies, and fixing the basics customers expect. Speaking with Dallas Morning News aviation reporter Jordan Parker, Orvér said the biggest challenge comes from connecting airlines that each operate differently while making those differences less visible to passengers. “We want to create the future. We don’t want the future to tell us what we should do,” he said.
Making 15 Airlines Feel More Connected
Orvér said oneworld’s size creates both an opportunity and a challenge. Each member airline has its own systems, policies, and way of operating, but passengers may interact with several carriers during the same trip. “Where we can work together, let’s work together,” Orvér said.
He pointed to commercial policies and technology as two areas where closer alignment could make travel easier across the alliance. The goal does not require every airline to operate the same way, but passengers should receive the products and benefits they expect regardless of which member carrier operates the flight.
Airlines often work well within individual teams, but passengers move across many parts of the airline during the same journey. Problems appear when systems built for one part of an airline do not communicate with systems in another. “The customer becomes horizontal, not vertical,” Orvér explained.
That idea gets to the heart of the alliance challenge. Passengers do not think about check-in, loyalty, seating, connections, or baggage as separate airline departments. They experience one trip, even when several airlines and systems sit behind it.
Making Consistency the Product
Improving the alliance experience does not depend only on adding new products. Orvér said oneworld also needs to make sure customers receive what they already purchased every time they travel. “Consistency to me is bringing everybody together,” he said.
Passengers judge an alliance product by whether they receive what they expected throughout the trip. That becomes more difficult when a journey includes two or three oneworld airlines, each with its own systems and way of operating. “Consistency to me is bringing everybody together,” Orvér explained.
A passenger may expect the same fare benefits, preferred seat, loyalty recognition, and digital experience across each flight. Orvér emphasized the need to put the passenger first and make sure those expectations carry across member airlines. “It gets delivered in a consistent manner to all of you every time you fly,” he added.
For oneworld, that puts the focus on making existing products and benefits work across the alliance. As Orvér put it, “It’s not about the product anymore,” but whether the alliance can deliver what the customer bought consistently throughout the journey.
Rethinking Loyalty Across the Alliance
Loyalty gives oneworld another opportunity to connect the passenger experience across its 15 member airlines. The alliance held its first loyalty summit earlier in the week as it looks at how loyalty has changed since oneworld launched more than two decades ago. “The value of loyalty has increased tremendously,” Orvér explained.
While the basic loyalty proposition has remained relatively similar, its importance to airlines has grown. For passengers, the challenge comes from making recognition and benefits work when a trip moves between different carriers. Orvér said the alliance wants to “remove friction as much as possible” from that experience.
That requires oneworld to look beyond individual loyalty programs and find ways for technology, policies, and customer recognition to connect across the network. “We want to create the future. We don’t want the future to tell us what we should do,” Orvér said. The opportunity goes beyond earning and redeeming points and depends on whether passengers can rely on their benefits throughout the journey.
Using Technology to Close the Gaps
Technology could play a major role in connecting those different parts of the alliance. Each member airline operates its own systems, which can create gaps when information needs to move between different parts of an airline or from one carrier to another.
Orvér identified technology as one of the areas where oneworld needs to make more progress. The alliance wants to “work more on technology,” he explained, particularly where better connections between systems could help member airlines “serve customers in a much better way.”
At the same time, oneworld’s 15 airlines still compete with one another, which limits how closely they can cooperate in some areas. Orvér sees innovation as one place where they can find common ground. “Where we can work together, let’s work together,” he said.
That could mean exploring new technologies together and identifying solutions that benefit several member airlines rather than having each carrier solve the same challenge separately. For oneworld, the opportunity comes from using that cooperation to close the gaps passengers notice when they move from one airline to another.
Fixing the Basics First
Despite the focus on technology and innovation, Orvér repeatedly returned to a more basic priority. “I want us to fix the basics,” he said.
For passengers, those basics include receiving the benefits and products they expect regardless of which oneworld carrier they fly. Delivering that across 15 airlines requires closer coordination on technology, policies, and how each carrier thinks about the alliance within its own operation.
Orvér emphasized that the broader mindset needs to stay focused on creating value for both passengers and member airlines. “Do we really focus on driving value for customers?” he asked. “Do we really focus on driving value for the member airlines?”
The next step for global alliances will depend on how well they connect existing systems, policies, and products so passengers notice fewer gaps when moving from one airline to another. That puts the focus on making the alliance work more consistently across the entire journey rather than simply adding another benefit or piece of technology.