[4][5] As of March 2020,[update] its member airlines collectively operate a fleet of 3,296 aircraft, serve about 1,000 airports in 170 countries, carrying over 490 million passengers per year on 13,000 plus daily departures.

It acts as the alliance's central secretariat, with responsibility for driving future growth and the launch of new customer services and benefits.

[8] Reporting to the CEO are vice-presidents for commercial; membership and customer experience; and corporate communications, a chief financial officer and an IT director.

At its launch in 1999, oneworld's member airlines and their affiliates served 648 destinations in 139 countries and carried 181 million passengers with a fleet of 1,577 aircraft.

[21] Irish flag carrier Aer Lingus was formally elected on board and confirmed as the ninth member of the alliance on 2 December 1999.

Hungarian flag carrier Malév signed an MOU in May 2005 as a precursor to a formal invitation to join, extended in November 2005.

[30] JAL and oneworld exchanged an MOU on 8 February 2006, setting out a framework for the remaining steps to be taken before the airline could be formally invited to join.

The alliance also unveiled a special version of its logo, featuring the text "10 years" printed behind the word oneworld as a watermark on its purple orb.

It became a full member on 15 November 2010, adding to oneworld one of the most extensive networks covering Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

[39] On 10 November 2009, oneworld welcomed Mexicana and its subsidiaries, MexicanaClick and MexicanaLink, after the airline accepted a formal invitation to join the alliance on 9 April 2008.

[41][42] On 2 August 2010, Mexicana filed for insolvency proceedings in Mexico and bankruptcy protection in the United States with its financial situation deteriorating.

However, on 3 February 2012, just a week before it was due to join the alliance, Kingfisher Airlines' entry was put on hold to give it more time to strengthen its financial position.

[48] On 6 June 2011, Malaysia Airlines became a new member designate on the sidelines of the IATA World Air Transport Summit in Singapore.

[51] On 11 June 2012, SriLankan Airlines became oneworld's latest member-elect, on the sidelines of the IATA World Air Transport Summit in Beijing.

The agreement to join was widely reported in the media as a coup for oneworld, with Qatar Airways the first among the "Big Three" carriers in the Persian Gulf to sign for any global airline alliance.

[57] On 15 August 2017, Air Berlin filed for insolvency after Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways stopped funding the airline.

[78] British Airways terminated its franchise agreement with Regional Air when the African carrier suspended flights in mid April 2005, ending its affiliate membership of Oneworld.

[81][82] Conversely, on 5 March 2007, the alliance ended its relationship with affiliate member and British Airways subsidiary, BA Connect.

A separate agreement for codesharing on some Loganair services replaced the previous franchise, for British Airways passengers connecting through Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

[108] Tensions escalated in 2017 when American Airlines announced it would end its codeshare agreement with Qatar Airways, citing these unfair practices.

In 2018, Qatar Airways threatened to leave the Oneworld alliance citing the behaviour of American Airlines, along with separate issues with Qantas[109].

In 2018, the Coalition government rejected an Australian expansion plan by Qatar Airways which was opposed by Qantas, who argued that the state-owned Qatari airline was dumping capacity and being "uncommercial and anti-competitive" by "selling tickets below cost-price, distorting markets and threatening the sustainable operation of international carriers to Australia"[113] Qantas referenced research by a US airline lobby group that revealed that Qatar Airways had received over US$17 billion in state aid and interest free loans from Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, as well as other support.

Due to Australia's international border restrictions, which were amongst the strictest in the world, Qantas was unable to operate international flights as it was a commercial corporation rather than a sovereign state-backed entity like Qatar Airways, who could afford to run the routes at a deep loss and counterbalance this loss by accessing subsidies from Qatar's sovereign wealth fund.

Despite this, Qatar Airways accumulated a large degree of support from the Australian public who were not aware of all the circumstances surrounding this issue, and Qatar Airways made another application to the Australian Government to double its flights to Australia in 2022 citing this support and their services to Australia during the pandemic.

[117] Starting from late 2022 after the Virgin Australia partnership was launched, Qantas vehemently opposed Qatar's application, with similar reasons to its 2018 argument, and made several representations to the Government.

[114] Qantas also argued that Qatar Airways' additional flights would be severely detrimental to the Australian tourism industry as it would fly out more Australians who spend domestically than it would bring in people from overseas due to the “disproportionately high” number of Australian-based outbound passengers on Qatar Airways flights.

[120] In October 2024, Qatar Airways announced plans to purchase a 25% stake in Virgin Australia,[121] a move widely seen as a workaround to the blocking of extra international flights from Doha[120] and Qantas's role in that outcome.

It will increase code-share and collaboration between Virgin Australia and Qatar, further undermining the relationship with Qantas and considerably escalate already tense hostilities between the two Oneworld carriers.

[150] All alliance members' aircraft bear a Oneworld logo, 30 centimetres (12 in) in diameter, on the right of the first set of entry doors behind the cockpit.

The design featured "a huge globe in the distinctive horizon blue of Oneworld, painted on the centre of the aircraft, with a stylised motif to symbolise the convenience, comfort, value and choice available to passengers throughout the alliance's comprehensive global network".