Oneworld is one of the world's three largest global airline alliances with its central management team, Oneworld Management Company, based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Oneworld was founded in 1999 by American Airlines, British Airways, Canadian Airlines, Cathay Pacific and Qantas.

The alliance had the biggest expansion in its history in 2007 when Japan Airlines, Malév and Royal Jordanian joined as full members, while Cathay Pacific's subsidiary Dragonair, five subsidiaries of Japan Airlines and two subsidiaries of LAN joined as affiliate members. In 2009, Oneworld celebrated its 10th anniversary with the introduction of a new standard Oneworld livery, that all of its member airlines adopted on a proportion of their fleets; and a special version of its logo.

By July 2010, Oneworld and its members elect reached over 870 destinations in 146 countries, including announced destinations but not yet commenced. It operates over 9,300 daily flights, carrying 335 million passengers on a combined fleet of over 2,400 aircraft. Since late 2002, Oneworld member airlines have developed common specifications across their engineering and maintenance activities, reducing costs through bulk buying and parts sharing. It was also the first airline alliance to introduce interline e-ticketing across all member airlines' network.