Oneworld Shifts Focus From Expansion to Customer Value Proposition
Share
Founded in 1999, the oneworld Alliance is set to turn 20 years old next year. During his six years with the company, Dennis Tierney, VP of Membership and Customer Experience, has seen the alliance grow to 14 airline members and double in terms of available seat kilometres (ASKs).
However, expansion isn’t oneworld’s top priority right now. There are still gaps in the network connectivity – Tierney says they’d love to have a home carrier in China and India to bring new markets to existing members – but their focus now is on the customer value proposition.
This transition is being led by new CEO Rob Gurney, who joined at the end of last year, with digital technology as the enabler. For example, travelers can now access a database of oneworld lounges directly through an airline member’s website as well as the oneworld website.
“We have innovated, but we have not kept pace with what our airlines are doing, what are industry is doing.” -Dennis Tierney, oneworld Alliance
There’s still further to go, though. Oneworld used to be proud of a service that saw staff meet passengers with close or missed connections right after landing to deal with them personally, Tierney says. But now, passengers are frustrated if they haven’t been updated on the situation while still on board the aircraft.
Oneworld is approaching its member airlines directly for possible solutions to the problem, but Tierney says they’re not sure, because alliance-related bookings only account for approximately 5 percent of revenue.
To address this, oneworld has created a new position – VP of Innovation and Digital Technology – which will help the company look at how to benefit the millennial traveler, which Tierney says wants to venture more and more off the beaten track.