Robert Antoniuk rejoins oneworld as VP Customer Experience and Airports

Robert Antoniuk has rejoined oneworld's central alliance team as Vice-President Customer Experience and Airports, succeeding Ken Gilbert who has returned to alliance founder member American Airlines after an extended four-year secondment.

oneworld comprises ten of the biggest and best names in the world airline industry, all international airline benchmarks for quality and value - American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, Iberia, Japan Airlines, Finnair, LAN Airlines, Malév Hungarian Airlines, Qantas and Royal Jordanian, plus 20 of their affiliate carriers.  Mexicana will join them later during 2009.  

Between them they offer the world's only truly network, with oneworld the only alliance with any member airline based in South America, Australia or in Asia's Middle East.  The alliance serves some 700 destinations in almost 150 countries, carrying more than 320 million passengers a year worldwide on around 9​000 daily departures.

Robert returns to the oneworld Management Company (oMC) after four years with alliance founder member Cathay Pacific, where he served as Airport Services Manager Vancouver. 

Reporting to oneworld Managing Partner John McCulloch and based at the alliance's Vancouver head office, he will work with the group's member airlines to lead the development and delivery of oneworld's customer experience products and proposition as well as overseeing the centralised co-ordination of alliance airport co-location projects. 

He originally joined oneworld in 2001, working initially as Manager, Brand Performance and Development and then as Director Customer Experience and Airports.

Previously, he was with the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia as Senior Manager Regional Marketing and with the HSBC group in Canada as Regional Marketing Manager and as Senior Manager Human Resources.

He succeeds Ken Gilbert as the alliance's biggest airport co-location project to date reaches its final stages, with the consolidation of its on-line carriers at the grouping's biggest European hub bring their operations together from across all five of London Heathrow's terminals into just two, Terminals 3 and 5.

Also during his watch, Ken supported consolidation of the alliance's airline operations in Tokyo Narita's Terminal 2 in 2007, in Madrid's new Terminal 4 and Bangkok's new Suvarnabhumi in 2006 as well as the opening of the first joint oneworld airport lounge in the world, opened at Los Angeles in 2007.

oneworld Managing Partner John McCulloch said: "Ken has accomplished a huge amount during his years as part of oneworld's central team. His biggest legacy will be the alliance's consolidation at its biggest European hub, London Heathrow, which he has co-ordinated with great tenacity and attention to detail in the face of huge complexity.  While this was his biggest project, he also co-ordinated significant airport co-location activities on virtually every other continent.

"We attracted an excellent range of high calibre candidates interested in succeeding Ken.  Robert's experience, skills and knowledge of oneworld made him the outstanding contender.  We wish him a warm welcome back."

Pictures

A print-quality hi-res picture of Robert Antoniuk can be downloaded from http://www.oneworld.com/news

About oneworld

oneworld brings together some of the best and biggest names in the airline business - American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN, Malév Hungarian Airlines, Qantas and Royal Jordanian, and around 20 affiliates including American Eagle, Dragonair, LAN Argentina, LAN Ecuador and LAN Peru.  Mexicana and its affiliate Click Mexicana will join the alliance in 2009. 

Between them, these airlines:

• Serve almost 700 airports in nearly 150 countries, with some 9​000 daily departures.
• Offer nearly 550 airport lounges for premium customers.
• Carry some 320 million passengers a year.
• Employ 250.000 people.
• Operate almost 2​500 aircraft.
• Generate more than US$100 billion annual revenues.

It is the only alliance with any airlines based in Australia, South America or Asia's Middle East.

The alliance 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 also offers more alliance fares than any of its competitors.