oneworld is now truly a world-spanning airline alliance, with a carrier on every continent. However, this victory is short-lived with LATAM set to depart in a month, leaving the alliance scrambling for a substitute.

Who is oneworld?

oneworld is one of the big three airline alliances, next to SkyTeam and Star Alliance. It is comprised of the following 13 existing members:

American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LATAM Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Qatar Airways, Royal Air Maroc, Royal Jordanian, S7 Airlines and SriLankan Airlines.

The airline alliance also has Fiji Airways as a 'connect partner' (a sort of pseudo member without having to commit the full membership requirements) as well as 30 other partners between airlines.

This makes oneworld the third largest in terms of passenger numbers per year, 528 million, after SkyTeam's 630 million passengers and Star Alliance's 762 million passengers.

With the addition of African Royal Air Maroc to the fold, the alliance now has a member airline on every continent in the world (sans Antarctica, but technically aircraft do get rented to fly there). A passenger with frequent flyer miles with any of the oneworld airlines could effectively fly to any destination on any major route network.

Royal Air Maroc, oneworld alliance, april 1st
Royal Air Maroc is the only African airline in the oneworld alliance. Photo: Getty Images

However, LATAM has made moves to quit the alliance and oneworld will soon lose that achievement unless they can find a new replacement South American airline.

Why is LATAM leaving?

LATAM is not leaving due to any disagreement, but in fact, because they were ordered to by new owners Delta Air Lines. Delta is a founding member of SkyTeam and doesn't want its new South American asset to be working with the 'enemy'.

Normally airlines have to give a one year notice to leave the airline alliance, however, LATAM was able to expedite this far quicker and will be departing May 1st. Technically, the airline was supposed to hang around until October 2020.

LATAM won't be joining SkyTeam (at least not yet), but it will be working very closely with Delta to provide connections for SkyTeam passengers throughout the continent. It will also honor existing bilateral agreements outside of oneworld such as its codeshare agreement with Qantas (this doesn't cover all destinations in South America).

LATAM Argentina Getty
LATAM's short-haul fleet is made up of A320 family aircraft. Photo: Getty Images

Those passengers that have been booked on LATAM for later in the year will have their tickets honored and will not have their travel blocked (ignoring the current crisis), although travelers flying via New York's JFK will have to change terminal.

Who could LATAM be replaced with?

This is a more tricky question. With LATAM leaving oneworld, there is a substantial gap in their alliance network. Some airlines from Europe fly to South America (such as Iberia) and others from the United States (American Airlines), but flying within the continent poses a challenge.

Looking at the options, there are few and far between. Of the remaining big airlines that are not in alliances, you have Azul and GOL Airlines. But they don't really fly that far away from their southern shores posing some connectivity issues. Perhaps the choice rests with Qatar, who has access to fly fifth freedom routes in the continent.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.