The oneworld alliance has chosen Moscow's Domodedovo Airport as the location of its first branded lounge. In February, oneworld's CEO Rob Gurney announced that the alliance would begin to offer its own branded lounges. However, until now the location has been kept a tight secret.

oneworld, lounge, domodedovo
oneworld has chosen Moscow Domodedovo as it's first branded lounge location. Photo: Maarten Visser via Wikimedia

In February, the oneworld alliance hosted a celebration in London, marking its 20th anniversary. Here CEO's from across the alliance's members met alongside a huge cake in the shape of a "20".

While giving speeches at the event, Rob Gurney, the alliance's CEO, announced the creation of branded lounges. The intention was that these lounges would be placed in airports where there is a strong alliance presence, however, no airline can feasibly commit to creating a lounge. As a result, Simple Flying believed that Beijing Daxing could be the perfect location.

Moscow's Domodedovo Airport

Instead, Moscow's Domodedovo Airport has been chosen as the location of the alliance's first branded lounge. The airport is home to S7 Airlines, a oneworld member airline, who already have their own business lounges at the airport. As such, it seems as though the objective of picking an unserved airport hasn't been achieved. S7 recently announced it would colocate with other alliance members at Beijing's new Daxing Airport.

The lounge currently has no opening date, however, this will be announced alongside further details later in 2020.

S7
S7 is a member of the oneworld airline alliance. Photo: Getty Images

It was initially unclear whether the lounge would complement S7's lounges, or replace one of them. Simple Flying has contacted the alliance for further clarification.

However, Moscow Domodedovo does fulfill the alliance's other key criteria. It is a oneworld hub. Of the 13 full members, six currently use the airport. These are British Airways, Iberia, Japan Airlines, Qatar Airways, Royal Jordanian, and S7 Airlines.

In total, the airport handles around 150 oneworld flights per day. Of these, S7 Airlines accounts for 140, or about 93%. Additionally, between January and November, alliance member airlines served 12.6 million passengers at Moscow's Domodedovo Airport between themselves.

OneWorld Lounge
Rob Gurney announced the OneWorld lounge initiative at a February press conference. Photo: OneWorld

Excited and thrilled

While speaking about the announcement, oneworld's CEO Rob Gurney was clearly very excited to finally announce the location following months of secrecy and speculation. He commented:

“We are excited to launch the first oneworld branded lounge at Moscow Domodedovo in this momentous year, as we celebrate the alliance’s 20th anniversary with an invigorated mission to deliver the highest levels of service and most seamless travel experience to our customers. Moscow Domodedovo is the home of our member S7 Airlines, and we are thrilled that the first oneworld branded lounge will be located at its hub.”

The lounge initiative was originally announced alongside the alliance's new Travel Bright idea. Travel Bright aims to see a passenger's experience between member airlines made seamless, for example, passengers being able to use one airline app for all members as opposed to 13.

Will you be looking forward to using the new lounge? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!