oneworld remains the world’s most international airline alliance
oneworld remains the world’s most international airline alliance: oneworld continues to serve more countries than its competitors, even while some rivals have been recruiting additional partners to their groupings. With the latest route expansion by its member airlines (see stories below), the oneworld map now covers an unmatched 135 territories.
oneworld’s not just the most international alliance, it also offers a wider range of alliance fare and sales products than all the competition combined - an unrivalled choice of excellent value tickets for captains of industry to backpackers, whether they want to fly right around the world or explore just one continent.
Reflecting the quality of its airlines, it is also the only alliance whose members collectively reported an overall operating profit last year.
To encourage existing and new members of its airlines' frequent flyer programmes to explore more of its unrivalled network, the alliance is currently offering a special bonus of up to 15,000 miles or points, redeemable throughout the oneworld network. To participate, you need to fly on three oneworld airlines, using eligible fares, between 1 October and 31 November. See oneworld.com for details.
Tbilisi, Fez, Pensacola, Salonika and Split join the network: The oneworld map will be extended to 581 destinations and an unmatched 135 countries with the addition in coming months of services to Georgia’s Tibilisi, Morocco’s Fez, Florida’s Pensacola, Greece’s Salonika and Croatia’s Split.
Tbilisi is rejoining the alliance’s network from 1 November, with affiliate British Mediterranian, a British Airways franchisee, linking the capital of Georgia with London Heathrow with two non-stop Airbus A320/321 flights a week, after an 18-month break in service. Schedules will be timed to provide excellent connections at London to and from North America.
Pensacola will be connected to the oneworld network, via its Dallas/Forth Worth hub, by affiliate American Eagle, the AA regional, four times non-stop each week day from 1 November, using 50-seat Embraer ERJ145 regional jets.
The Moroccan imperial city of Fez will be served twice-weekly by affiliate GB Airways, which flies as a British Airways franchisee, twice-weekly from 2 November, from London Gatwick. Also from London Gatwick, British Airways itself is inaugurating services to Salonika four times a week and Split thrice weekly from late March, when it will join Finnair in operating as well to Vilnius, in Lithuanian, five times a week.
Three more pairs of partners offer customer ease of interline e-ticketing: Fourteen of the potential 28 pairs of oneworld airlines now offer the customer convenience of interline e-ticketing (IET), covering more than 90 per cent of passengers transferring between the alliance’s airlines.
Latest to link up are British Airways with both Aer Lingus and LAN and Aer Lingus with Qantas, keeping the alliance on track to become the first with the service in place between all partners, by the end of 2004. The UK carrier now offers IET with six of its oneworld partners. American offers it with them all.
IET enables customers to be checked right through to their final destinations on journeys involving a transfer between carriers with no need for a paper ticket, making connections between carriers smoother, easier and more reliable. They also make it easier and quicker for them to rebook between airlines – and there are no bits of paper to be lost or stolen.
Finnair to up-grade longhaul business class with lie-flat seats: Finnair is the latest oneworld carrier to up-grade its intercontinental business class with the installation of lie-flat beds. All six of the airline's Boeing MD11s will be reconfigured by the end of next year. The new-style Business cabin will offer 36 of the lie-flat seats, with pitch increased from the current 127 cm (50 ins) to 160 cm (63 ins). At the same time, it is improving its in-flight entertainment with the new LCD technology. Alliance partners British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas already offer flat or lie-flat beds in their longhaul business cabins. Iberia has also now started installing them.
Services between Latin American and both Europe and USA enhanced: Iberia, already the leading carrier between Europe and Latin America, is improving its services to the region still further with the launch of services to Montevideo and by upgrading its flights to Guatemala, Panama and San José (Costa Rica) to non-stop, rather than flying via Miami.
Its three Airbus A340s a week to Montevideo are the only non-stops between the
Uruguay and Europe. Its American Airlines partner is also enhancing its service to the city, offering three non-stops a week too from 16 December, to April, using Boeing 767s. It other four flights a week will continue to transit Buenos Aires.
American Airlines is also launching services between San José and Los Angeles from 16 December, with daily Boeing 757 non-stops.
Iberia is, however, suspending its own services to Cancun (Mexico), Managua (Nicaragua), San Pedro Sula (Honduras) and San Salvador (El Salvador), offering connections instead by code-share flights on other airlines. All four points will remain on the oneworld network, through American Airlines' services.
oneworld affiliate Iberia Regional Air Nostrum has launched services between its Madrid hub and Bordeaux, with an initial two daily flights. It is the Spanish group's 15th French route, with its flights between Spain and France now totaling 602 flights a week.
Aer Lingus opens eight more routes: Aer Lingus’ rapid network expansion continues. The Irish low-fares carrier is adding daily flights from its Dublin hub to Liverpool (England), Las Palmas and Lanzarote (Spain) and four a week to Budapest, all from the end of October. Its Cork base is also benefiting with four new destinations - Faro, Munich, Nice and Rome, from late March, increasing its operations from the South Coast Irish airport by 50 per cent. They take to 21 the number of new routes opened by the carrier since the beginning of this year.
Swiss routes on a roll: British Airways is opening three new routes to Switzerland from the end of October:
- London Heathrow-Basle three times daily
- London Gatwick-Zurich twice daily.
- Birmingham-Geneva, weekly from December to April, operated by its regional affiliate British Airways CitiExpress.
Cathay Pacific links Hong Kong hub with New York non-stop: Cathay Pacific has launched daily non-stops between its Hong Kong home and New York JFK hub. Its three-class Airbus 340-600s take 14 hours 35 minutes to cover the route, clipping hours off the previous fastest journey between the two cities. The airline is maintaining is existing dailies between Hong Kong and JFK via Vancouver.
AA to expand operations at its Dallas/Fort Worth hub by 10 per cent: American Airlines and its regional affiliate American Eagle are to expand operations at their main Dallas/Fort Worth hub by around 10 per cent by next summer, adding another 70 frequencies a day. The group said the increase was being made "on the strength of a growing North Texas economy and the continued success" of its hub. It will take American’s daily jet departures from the airport to 540, the biggest operation at its base in the airline's history.
Qantas launches flights to Mumbai and adds Los Angeles links: Qantas has launched the only non-stops between Australia and India with its new thrice-weekly flights between Mumbai and its Sydney hub. British Airways already serves the Indian city from London Heathrow and Cathay Pacific from Hong Kong. Qantas is also adding another two weekly frequencies between Melbourne and Los Angeles hub from November, taking its schedule on the route to nine services a week.
oneworld in brief: oneworld brings together some of the best and biggest names in the airline business - American Airlines, British Airways, Qantas, Iberia, Cathay Pacific, LAN, Finnair and Aer Lingus - enabling them 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. Together, its members serve more than 575 destinations in 135 countries. oneworld offers more alliance fare and sales products, serving more markets, than all its competitors combined. Its members’ 1,900 aircraft operate nearly 8,000 flights a day. oneworld was voted the world’s best airline alliance by readers of Business Traveller magazine in its 2004 poll and the World's Leading Airline Alliance in the tenth World Travel Awards, based on votes cast by 80,000 travel agencies professionals from more than 200 countries.
