Alaska Airlines (AS, Seattle Tacoma International) has announced that it will join the Oneworld alliance in Summer 2021. Also, it will strengthen its partnership with oneworld member American Airlines (AA, Dallas/Fort Worth).
The new alliance will allow passengers to earn and redeem miles on countless domestic and international destinations, and is boosted by American's announcement on the same day of the first nonstop flight from Seattle Tacoma International to Bengaluru International starting in October 2020, along with a new service from Seattle to London Heathrow in Spring 2021.
Alaska Airlines is the largest carrier in Seattle, currently commanding 54% of the airport's weekly capacity, with Delta in the second spot with 24%. American is a distant fifth with just over 4% market share in terms of weekly seats.
While there are no direct flights to any destination in India from Seattle, there are presently daily services from Heathrow operated by both Virgin Atlantic (VS, London Heathrow) and British Airways (BA, London Heathrow), according to the ch-aviation schedules module. The respective frequencies increase to 11 and 14 weekly flights during the summer season.
Oneworld already brings together 13 global airlines and is on track to welcome Royal Air Maroc (AT, Casablanca Mohamed V) from April 1, 2020, becoming its first full member on the African continent.
The news of the deal with Alaska follows swiftly after American announced a codeshare with GOL Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes (G3, São Paulo Congonhas), which was revealed earlier this month, and was partly in response to LATAM Airlines Group abandoning its agreement with the US carrier in favour of its new North American partner Delta Air Lines (DL, Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson).
