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Being part of the oneworld, SriLankan Airlines anticipates incremental revenue of $ 60 million over three years and within the first year it expects to generate approximately $ 25 million.
“This (revenue) will increase as we progress in the partnership. However, it is a two-way process. Not only do we get the opportunity but we also give,” he added.
In mid-2012 the National Carrier was invited to become a member of the oneworld family due to its strong presence in the Indian sub-continent. Taking into consideration the airline’s reputation as a world-class service provider, its high safety standards, and the connectivity it provides, oneworld chose SriLankan to bridge the void it has in its network in the South East Asia and Southern Indian region.
For its global map of over 900 destinations in 150 countries, SriLankan will be adding two new destinations – Hambantota and Tiruchirappalli.
Oneworld’s member airlines include Air Berlin, American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Qatar Airways, Royal Jordanian, S7 Airlines, and TAM Airlines.
Sponsoring SriLankan Airline’s entry to the oneworld alliance is Cathay Pacific Airways.
While globally there are two other leading alliances, Star Alliance and SkyTeam, SriLankan Airlines said it chose to go with oneworld since it is known for its global reputation for service, punctuality, and convenient connections.
“With many prestigious awards in its bag, the alliance is all about providing a premium quality service, which falls well within our objectives. Out of all airline alliances, it is only oneworld that allows maintaining and entering into code-share agreements with non-member airlines, thereby providing a greater flexibility for us to continue expanding our operations,” said Chandrasena.
Before integrating with oneworld, SriLankan Airlines was faced with a necessity of fine-tuning areas such as technology platforms, processes, capacity building and its frequent flyer program.
To be on par with the other member airlines, Sri Lankan has undated its reservation system, departure control, revenue accounting, and FFP systems, while in terms of processes, the carrier has ensured they were internationally-aligned to suit the requirement of the alliance.
While over a half of the airline’s workforce needed training, about 3,000 have been trained so far on areas such as onboard, airport, RAMP, in-flight, airport services, reservations and ticketing, whereas training for the remainder will be concluded at the end of this month.
oneworld is an American airline alliance and was founded in 1999 with the objective of being the first choice airline alliance for the world’s frequent international travellers.
oneworld is the third largest global alliance with 496.4 million passengers, behind Star Alliance which has about 637.6 million passengers and SkyTeam which has 588 million.
As of October 2013, its member airlines collectively operated a fleet of some 3,300 aircraft, served about 1,000 airports in more than 150 countries, carried 475 million passengers per year on 14,000 daily departures and generated annual revenues of more than $ 140 billion.
