The oneworld Alliance has announced they are moving headquarters from New York City to the American Airlines campus in Ft. Worth Texas.

The alliance which originally was based in Vancouver Canada relocated to NYC in 2011.

The move is expected to be effective starting in December.

oneworld global headquarters to relocate to Fort Worth, Texas
https://www.oneworld.com/news/2022-10-1 ... orth-Texas

Probably not a popular move with the OneWorld carriers who don't fly to DFW. Particularly CX, AT, and RJ fly to JFK but not DFW.

Probably not that big of deal though.

London would be a better location above anything.

Does anyone know how many employees will be relocating?

Dallas is huge but an extremely boring place. Feel sorry for the employees.

Moving OneWorld's HQ to the same city as one of the major airlines in the alliance is probably a bad idea. It means OneWorld will (or at least be perceived by other airlines) end up giving more attention to American than other airlines. At the very least, OneWorld employees are likely to end up spending a lot more time with AA employees, and by default end up favouring the people who they know well - i.e. AA employees. OneWorld is not meant to be just American and its buddies.

OneWorld should have its HQ in a city which is not dominated by any of its member airlines, so as to retain not just its independence of all airlines, but also avoid any suspicion of giving special favours to one airline

davidjohnson6 wrote:

Moving OneWorld's HQ to the same city as one of the major airlines in the alliance is probably a bad idea. It means OneWorld will (or at least be perceived by other airlines) end up giving more attention to American than other airlines. At the very least, OneWorld employees are likely to end up spending a lot more time with AA employees, and by default end up favouring the people who they know well - i.e. AA employees. OneWorld is not meant to be just American and its buddies.

OneWorld should have its HQ in a city which is not dominated by any of its member airlines, so as to retain not just its independence of all airlines, but also avoid any suspicion of giving special favours to one airline

If you remember when OW was founded they based it in Vancouver, home of Canadian. They moved it to NYC after Air Canada took over. I understand in NYC, OW was colocated with AA, BA and JL regional HQ teams.

But being based in an alliance partner home town is nothing new. Star is in Frankfurt and ST are in Amsterdam.

mercure1 wrote:

davidjohnson6 wrote:

Moving OneWorld's HQ to the same city as one of the major airlines in the alliance is probably a bad idea. It means OneWorld will (or at least be perceived by other airlines) end up giving more attention to American than other airlines. At the very least, OneWorld employees are likely to end up spending a lot more time with AA employees, and by default end up favouring the people who they know well - i.e. AA employees. OneWorld is not meant to be just American and its buddies.

OneWorld should have its HQ in a city which is not dominated by any of its member airlines, so as to retain not just its independence of all airlines, but also avoid any suspicion of giving special favours to one airline

If you remember when OW was founded they based it in Vancouver, home of Canadian. They moved it to NYC after Air Canada took over. I understand in NYC, OW was colocated with AA, BA and JL regional HQ teams.

But being based in an alliance partner home town is nothing new. Star is in Frankfurt and ST are in Amsterdam.

Yeah, I do t see the big deal either. AA is probably giving them free office space and oneworld has like 10 employees. A CEO, some marketing folks and some IT folks. That is it.

davidjohnson6 wrote:

Moving OneWorld's HQ to the same city as one of the major airlines in the alliance is probably a bad idea. It means OneWorld will (or at least be perceived by other airlines) end up giving more attention to American than other airlines. At the very least, OneWorld employees are likely to end up spending a lot more time with AA employees, and by default end up favouring the people who they know well - i.e. AA employees. OneWorld is not meant to be just American and its buddies.

OneWorld should have its HQ in a city which is not dominated by any of its member airlines, so as to retain not just its independence of all airlines, but also avoid any suspicion of giving special favours to one airline

Being next to AA, is viewed as a benefit to the alliance per their press release statements.

oneworld CEO Rob Gurney:
“As our industry recovers from COVID-19, alliances and partnerships have continued to deepen. With our new home in Fort Worth, we anticipate even closer collaboration with American and our member airlines as we work side by side to further grow and strengthen oneworld.”

oneworld Chairman Akbar Al Baker:
“It is a significant step to relocate our oneworld global headquarters to the state-of-the-art Robert L. Crandall Campus to be close to American Airlines, one of our founder members. Its home hub at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport is one of the largest airports in our alliance and serviced by eight members, demonstrating its unrivalled connectivity and importance to travellers as a global hub.”

Post-pandemic, with many people working from home and for a business like Oneworld which is not actually customer facing at all, I'm surprised they need a head office of any size. Most of what their staff would do could be done with a laptop and a Teams connection and the staff could be located basically anywhere.

Lot of people gunning for the dumbest comment of the day award.

Would have expected Doha considering Qatar Airways is basically making the alliance their own.

I will give it 5 - 10 years until Oneworld HQ moves to Doha for tax reasons.

Well AA is building a nice posh company "hotel" on campus. I am sure that this will be open those there on OW biz.

PHLspecial wrote:

I will give it 5 - 10 years until Oneworld HQ moves to Doha for tax reasons.

What income does oneworld have to pay taxes on? It is basically a nonprofit.

usflyer msp wrote:

PHLspecial wrote:

I will give it 5 - 10 years until Oneworld HQ moves to Doha for tax reasons.

What income does oneworld have to pay taxes on? It is basically a nonprofit.

Exactly my thinking...it isn't like Oneworld is a major for-profit corporation with income. It's irrelevant to where their HQ is.

How many employees does OW actually have on payroll that aren't directly employed with an OW alliance carrier?

UPlog wrote:

Outside of some potential PR/prestige reasons not sure why bother be based in costly and difficult city like NYC.

I am sure colocating on the AA campus makes good business sense for the alliance. For staff, they probably will get nice instant raise thanks to no tax Texas and where their income will go much farther than NYC.

For travel, DFW is well connected to many corners of the world, so should not be a logistical challenge.

Possibly, but I’ve also noticed many companies making pay adjustments based on location. They may be getting the same pay, relatively speaking.

They’ll find their new home a kind and welcoming place.

It's probably smart for them to move to Dallas. Definitely cheaper and closer to one of their (if not the) largest airline member.

USAirALB wrote:

usflyer msp wrote:

PHLspecial wrote:

I will give it 5 - 10 years until Oneworld HQ moves to Doha for tax reasons.

What income does oneworld have to pay taxes on? It is basically a nonprofit.

Exactly my thinking...it isn't like Oneworld is a major for-profit corporation with income. It's irrelevant to where their HQ is.

How many employees does OW actually have on payroll that aren't directly employed with an OW alliance carrier?

Yes they are non-profit but the employees would have to pay local income taxes. HQ location would be for power reasons and I would guess AA has a lot of say in OW.

Please post on topic

How big is oneworld HQ headcount and what purpose does HQ serve?

I am going to assume that expenses for OW are paid by the member Airlines on a percentage basis, based on airline size. I can't imagine that the OW staff does much more than some accounting and Marketing. I don't ever remember seeing any direct marketing for stand alone OW. Does OW have a say in scheduling?