31 October 2007 - The first airport lounges in the world developed as a oneworld® alliance project open their doors tomorrow (Thursday 1 November) - at Los Angeles International Airport’s Tom Bradley International Terminal. British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas collaborated to design and develop the facility. It includes separate lounges for First and Business Class passengers flying with any of these carriers. The lounges will also be available to premium passengers flying with the alliance’s other two carriers operating from the terminal - Japan Airlines and LAN - and oneworld Emerald or Sapphire tier frequent flyer cardholders from any oneworld member airline when flying on any of the alliance’s carriers. The other oneworld airline serving Los Angeles, American Airlines, operates from Terminal 4, adjacent to the Tom Bradley building, where it also offers lounge facilities.

Although many lounges have been established around the world by individual pairings of the alliance’s airlines, this is the first time a joint lounge has been developed from scratch on a oneworld basis.

The new oneworld lounges have been created to complement, rather than reflect, the carriers’ own individual designs, employing a spacious "outside in" concept to evoke California’s sea and sand culture. Their fresh new, modern and contemporary design aims to mirror and enhance the premium brand positioning of each airline.

Signature design features include a bank of plasma screens in the reception area and a relaxing bar. The facility also includes nine showers, internet café-style work stations equipped with PCs and buffet areas. Customers will be offered complimentary refreshments, wi-fi access, newspapers and magazines. First Class passengers will be provided with personalised service.

Located on Tom Bradley International’s Level 5, the 1,360 square-metre facility has space for 90 First Class and 210 Business Class passengers. It will be open from 9 am to 2 am.

oneworld Vice-President Customer Experience and Airports Ken Gilbert said: "oneworld’s usual approach is to deliver our alliance services and benefits, including lounges, through our individual member airlines, but with the space available at Los Angeles, combined with the redevelopment of Tom Bradley International Terminal, the best option all round was for our member airlines to develop a joint lounge. It has enabled them all to offer their most important customers a facility that is much bigger and better equipped than any of the airlines could provide individually."

About oneworld
oneworld brings together some of the best and biggest names in the airline business - American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, LAN, Qantas and, since 1 April, Japan Airlines, Malév Hungarian Airlines and Royal Jordanian, plus some 20 affiliates. Dragonair will join as an affiliate tomorrow (1 November).

Their addition has expanded oneworld substantially to:

• Almost 700 airports in some 150 countries.
• Nearly 500 airport lounges for premium customers.
• More than 9,000 daily departures by a combined fleet of almost 2,500 aircraft.
• More than 320 million passengers.
• 260,000 employees.
• More than US$90 billion annual revenues, up by a third.

From Los Angeles’ Tom Bradley International Terminal the four on-line oneworld carriers offer up to 15 departures a day:

• British Airways flies to London Heathrow three times daily.
• Cathay Pacific serves Hong Kong three times daily.
• Japan Airlines flies to Tokyo Narita daily.
• LAN flies to Santiago daily and LAN Peru to Lima daily.
• Qantas serves Melbourne twice daily, Brisbane five times a week and Auckland daily. It also flies to Sydney 16 times a week from the adjacent Terminal 4, including one a day originating from New York JFK.
• From its own Terminal 4 next door to the Tom Bradley terminal, American Airlines flies to Tokyo Narita, London Heathrow, various points in Mexico and extensively across the USA.

oneworld enables its members to offer their customers more services and benefits than any airline can provide on its own. These include a broader route network, opportunities to earn and redeem frequent flyer miles and points across the combined oneworld network and more airport lounges. oneworld is the only airline alliance with a truly global network, as the only grouping with any member airlines in the Americas south of Mexico, in the Middle East and in Australia. It is also the only alliance to enable passengers to fly throughout its network, on any combination of carriers, using just electronic tickets.

oneworld was voted the World’s Leading Airline Alliance for the fourth year running in the latest World Travel Awards, based on votes cast by some 170,000 travel professionals, including more than 110,000 travel agents in 200 countries.

Source: Oneworld
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