aword from oneworld: July 2008

23 de julio de 2008

LAN to launch first Canadian connection:  LAN is to open service to Canada, with an initial five Boeing 767s a week between Toronto and its Santiago hub, via New York JFK, from 3 September.   The airline also has traffic rights between the US and Canadian gateways.  At Toronto, it will operate from Pearson International Airport's Terminal 3.

RJ opens Ukraine connections:  Royal Jordanian is to be the fourth oneworld carrier to serve Kiev with the launch of non-stops to the Ukrainian capital from its Amman hub from 17 August with an initial three Embraer 195s a week.  It takes its network to 56 destinations.

Dragonair roars into Bangalore:  Affiliate Dragonair yesterday launched daily Airbus A330 flights between its Hong Kong hub and Bengaluru (Bangalore) - its first route to India.  The city is already on the oneworld network through services by British Airways.

Finnair to fly to Hong Kong daily:  Finnair is to fly between its Helsinki hub and the Hong Kong home of oneworld partner Cathay Pacific daily in the coming winter season, starting 25 October, up from four a week last year.  Timings on a number of its key Asian routes will also be changed to provide better connections with its European network. 

JAL to offer Premium Economy on more European routes:  Japan Airlines is to offer its JAL Premium Economy cabin on four more Europe routes - between its Tokyo Narita hub and both Amsterdam and Moscow and on Osaka-London Heathrow and Nagoya-Paris CDG progressively from October.

oneworld in brief:  oneworld brings together some of the best and biggest names in the airline business - American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN, Malév Hungarian Airlines, Qantas and Royal Jordanian, plus some 20 affiliates, including American Eagle, South Africa's Comair, Dragonair, LAN Argentina, LAN Ecuador and LAN Peru.  Mexicana will join in 2009, with its subsidiary Click Mexicana as an affiliate.

Its airlines serve some 700 destinations in 150 countries and offer almost 550 airport lounges worldwide.   They carried around 320 million passengers last year.  It is the only alliance with any member airlines based in South America, Asia's Middle East or Australia.

The alliance enables its members to offer their customers more services and benefits than any airline can provide on its own.  These include a broader route network, opportunities to earn and redeem frequent flyer miles and points across the combined oneworld network and more airport lounges.  oneworld is the only alliance to enable passengers to fly throughout its network, on any combination of carriers, using just electronic tickets. 

oneworld was voted the World's Leading Airline Alliance for the fifth year running in the 2007 World Travel Awards, based on votes cast by some 170.000 travel professionals, including more than 110.000 travel agents in 200 countries.