ONEWORLD, the airline alliance which includes British Airways, is to form a central management team to save costs and develop new products.
The team will be led by Peter Buecking who will step down from his role as sales and marketing director with Oneworld member Cathay Pacific Airways.
In his new role as Oneworld managing partner, Buecking will be in charge of developing customer services and benefits for the year-old alliance.
He will report to the alliance’s governing board which is made up of chief executives of each of the member airlines.
The central management team’s role is currently carried out by project teams drawn from the member airlines, which also include American Airlines, Canadian Airlines, Finnair, Iberia and Qantas.
Bueckling said the new structure will save costs, speed up development times and enable quality standards to be monitored. It will be based in Vancouver from April and will become fully operational by the summer.
He is currently recruiting a team of executives who are experienced in customer service, marketing, IT and finance activities.
Later this year, Aer Lingus and LanChile will join the alliance.