In June 2024, it was formally announced that Fiji Airways would become a full member of the oneworld alliance. There’s now an exciting update, as this process has been finalized, and oneworld has a new member airline.
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Fiji Airways is now part of the oneworld alliance
As of April 1, 2025, Fiji Airways has joined the oneworld alliance. For context, the oneworld alliance is one of the three global alliances. Major airlines in oneworld include American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, Qantas, Qatar Airways, and more.
In the past several years, the alliance has added two new members (Alaska and Royal Air Maroc), but has also lost one member (LATAM). Furthermore, Oman Air is expected to become a oneworld member by June 2025.
Fiji Airways hopes that joining the oneworld alliance will help the country further increase its tourism, as the airline is already the country’s largest generator of foreign exchange income.
Fiji Airways is now the smallest member of the oneworld alliance, as the airline has just 14 jet aircraft, with the fleet comprised of Airbus A350s, Airbus A330s, and Boeing 737s. The airline offers a great business class experience on its A350s, and has a nice flagship lounge at Nadi Airport.
Interestingly, Fiji Airways has actually adopted American AAdvantage as its loyalty program, so that’s the most practical program with which to earn and redeem miles on the airline, and take advantage of elite perks.
Here’s how Nat Pieper, CEO of oneworld, describes this development:
“The introduction of Fiji Airways marks an important strategic step for our alliance as we connect even more people, places and experiences than ever before. Fiji Airways customers will benefit from oneworld’s global reach of more than 900 destinations, priority services and premium lounge access, and we’re thrilled to welcome them to the oneworld family.”
Here’s what Andre Viljoen, CEO of Fiji Airways, had to say:
“Becoming a full member of the oneworld alliance is a proud and momentous milestone for Fiji Airways. This achievement reflects our commitment to providing world-class service and expanding our global reach, while showcasing the warmth and hospitality of Fiji to the world. As a full member, we are excited to offer our customers even greater benefits and seamless connectivity across the extensive oneworld network. We look forward to welcoming more oneworld customers onboard to experience the beauty of Fiji and the exceptional service of Fiji Airways.”
Fiji Airways was already a oneworld Connect member
Some people may be thinking “wait a minute, wasn’t Fiji Airways already affiliated with oneworld?” Yes, sort of.
Between 2018 and now, Fiji Airways was the only oneworld Connect member, which is essentially a more limited version of alliance membership. I think the whole oneworld Connect concept was kind of silly, and created confusion among passengers. Essentially, oneworld Connect carriers had affiliations with only some oneworld airlines, and then most reciprocal perks were only valid between the oneworld Connect member and the airline it partnered with directly.
Fiji Airways fully joining the oneworld alliance is fantastic in terms of reciprocal opportunities when it comes to earning and redeeming miles, as well as taking advantage of elite benefits, like lounge access. The oneworld Emerald tier is also my favorite elite status offered by any alliance.
I also think Fiji Airways is doing the alliance a favor by becoming a full member and putting an end to the oneworld Connect concept. It’s now possible for all oneworld frequent flyer programs to earn and redeem miles on Fiji Airways, and take advantage of elite perks on the airline.
Bottom line
Fiji Airways has officially become a full oneworld member airline, as part of a larger attempt to boost tourism in the country. The airline was previously a oneworld Connect member, so fully joining the alliance is great for passengers, as it translates to a lot more reciprocal perks. The integration of Fiji Airways into oneworld was completely very quickly, which is great.
What do you make of Fiji Airways becoming a full oneworld member?
Hopefully Aer Lingus joins for real soon as well
Nice! But does not resolve the main gaps in the geographical map: Central Europe and Latin America. The options there are few and all rather unlikely.
@ Andy -- Agreed, oneworld needs to do something there. But it also gets at the complexity of the veto rights of founding alliance members, and how they may not always act in the best interest of the alliance at large.
You don't really have much choice left for either. For Central Europe, either airBaltic or Air Serbia. For Latam, GOL.
In Africa, would RwandAir be a good fit?
No African airline south of the Sahara and north of Kruger National Park has the heft to be part of an alliance with the obvious exception of Ethiopian.
@ORD_Is_My_Second_Home
Not even Kenya?!
Anywho, another gaping hole would be China and India. While you have CX/UO, that isn't enough with the amount of frequency and service to the smaller cities. As for India, there's IndiGo.
Other than that, you'd have a good network. Bangkok Airways can certainly work. Philippine Airlines is in a tough spot as they don't have anything to offer an alliance beyond the Philippines.
Gulf Air is another interesting case.
RwandAir seems to be logical with their Qatar ties
Air Baltic? They are at the edge of the continent and serve the same area as Finnair. That wouldn't boost the network much. BT did hint some pan-European expansion ambitions but nothing came out of it so far.
The real gamechanger would be if OW managed to convince LOT to switch.
It's unlikely that oneworld will be able to close those gaps.
- SA Airlink do have a close relationship with QR, but, not unlike Rwandair, they're an inconsequentially small player.
- Gol absolutely won't be joining oneworld. They are in the same conglomerate as Avianca and handle massive amounts of AFKL connecting traffic, plus they work very closely with Aerolíneas Argentinas (I think you can turn up at the airport with a flexible...
It's unlikely that oneworld will be able to close those gaps.
- SA Airlink do have a close relationship with QR, but, not unlike Rwandair, they're an inconsequentially small player.
- Gol absolutely won't be joining oneworld. They are in the same conglomerate as Avianca and handle massive amounts of AFKL connecting traffic, plus they work very closely with Aerolíneas Argentinas (I think you can turn up at the airport with a flexible ticket and jump on the next AEP-GRU flight regardless of who operates it).
- IAG would like to bid for TAP, but I don't think they'd be successful. Air Baltic seem destined for LHG, so there's only JU and a few smaller Balkan carriers left, unless something crazy happens with LOT, Condor, or TAROM.
All in all, they will likely remain the smallest alliance and only have Doha as a proper global hub.
Fine BUT the big question is about partner access to award inventory. Specifically business class.
@ Lee -- We don't have any reason to believe that will change, as Fiji Airways awards have been bookable through many programs for a long time (like Alaska Mileage Plan). Fiji Airways isn't great about making saver level business class awards available (aside from occasional availability dumps). With Fiji Airways now part of AAdvantage, awards can be booked at "rule buster" rates, but those are painfully high.
Which is exactly my point.