V A N T A G E P O I N T
AMERICANWAY
FEBRUARY 15 2009
8
PHOTOGRAPHBYCHETSNEDDEN
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quality rather than just the quantity of our
member airlines. Our partners all have
hard-earned reputations for servicequality,
andworkingtogether,weprovideaworldof
benefitsbeyondwhatany individual carrier
canoffer. For the last decade,wehavebeen
perfecting the art of smoothly connecting
customers from one carrier to another. In
fact, we were the first global alliance to
offer electronic ticketing between all our
partner airlines. Thatmeans you can travel
throughout the vast
one
worldnetwork, on
any combinationof airlines, using e-tickets
exclusively. If youbelong to amember car-
rier’s frequent-flier program, your rewards
andprivileges are extended throughout the
one
world network. We also operate nearly
550 airport lounges around the world, so
international premium-class and top-tier
frequent fliers almost always have a place
tounwindbefore theirnext flight.
one
world has been voted the World’s
Leading Airline Alliance six years running
at theWorld Travel Awards (the travel in-
dustry’s equivalent of the Oscars), but as
one
world begins its second decade, we
aren’t resting on our laurels. For more on
all that
one
world has to offer, please go to
.
Theworldhas changed inways fewof us
expected back in 1999. But our belief then
in the importance of global connectivity—
and thewisdomof ourdecision to joinwith
other leadingairlinestobuildanallianceca-
pableof smoothly transportingpeople from
one side of the planet to the other — has
beenaffirmedmany timesover.And, loand
behold,myold coffeemaker stillworks!
Wherever today’s journey takes you, I
want to thank you for letting American
Airlinesbeapart of it.Haveagreat trip!
ten
yearsof
one
world
Gerard J. Arpey
Chairman&CEO
AmericanAirlines
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W
What do you remember about 1999? I re-
member the price of oil being around $20
a barrel, theDow Jones Industrial Average
breaking 10,000 points, and Lance Arm-
strong winning his first Tour de France. I
also seem to recall wondering, with Y2K
looming, if my coffeemaker and other
householdapplianceswould functionprop-
erly in thenewmillennium.
In a more serious vein, in 1999 my col-
leagues and I at American Airlines were
very focused on globalization and on how
wecouldbest satisfyourcustomers’ increas-
ing appetite for access to markets all over
the world. At that time, we had been com-
plementingourownextensive international
networkwith alliances with individual for-
eigncarriers for several years.Workingwith
alliance partners enabled us tomore effec-
tively attract customers flying between AA
citiesand internationaldestinations that for
one reasonor another—whether regulato-
ry, logistical, oreconomic—wewereunable
to serve on our own. To illustrate, if a cus-
tomer’s journey took him from Omaha to
Warsaw viafirst Chicago and thenLondon,
wemight carry him fromOmaha, through
Chicago, to London. At that point, our al-
liance partner British Airways would take
over, carryinghim the last leg toWarsaw.
Through bilateral alliances, we signifi-
cantly expanded the power and reach of
our network. But by 1999, with globaliza-
tion picking up speed, we knewwe had to
domore. Thus, 10 years ago thismonth, we
teamed up with British Airways, Canadian
Airlines,CathayPacificAirways,andQantas
Airways to create a multilateral alliance
called
one
world. In the years since, we’ve
welcomed Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines,
LAN, Malév, and Royal Jordanian into the
one
world fold. Our roster includes 10 air-
lines (andnearly twodozenaffiliatecarriers)
linkingnearly700 communitiesworldwide.
Of course, an effective alliance requires
more than dots on a map. In growing
one
world, we have focused more on the
