aword from oneworld: November 2005

11 novembre 2005

Kangaroo Island, Flint, Rhodes and Port Lincoln ready to hop on board: Four more destinations will be joining oneworldTM 's network in the next few months, taking the alliance's map to 601 destinations in 134 countries.

Kangaroo Island and Port Lincoln, in South Australia, are being added next month by affiliate QantasLink, which will serve both destinations from Adelaide, with weekend direct flights to the popular eco-tourism destination of Kangaroo Island also from Melbourne. It will offer 58 flights a week between Adelaide and tuna port Port Lincoln - which has IATA three-letter code PLO - and daily returns between the South Australian capital and Kangaroo Island (KGC), using Dash 8s on all three new routes.

In Europe, Rhodes is to be brought on-line by affiliate GB Airways, which flies as a British Airways franchisee, which is launching flights between the Greek island and London Gatwick with an initial two flights a week from 3 May. With the IATA three-letter code of RHO it will become the fourth destination in Greece served by the alliance, joining Athens, Heraklion (Crete) and Salonika.

In the USA, Flint is to be served by affiliate American Eagle from 15 December. The regional carrier will launch services between the Michigan city's Bishop International Airport - which has the IATA three-letter code FNT - and the alliance's Chicago O'Hare hub, with two daily non-stops operated by Embraer regional jets.

With the addition of the three airlines lining up to join oneworld - Royal Jordanian, which will come on board at the turn of 2006/2007; Malev, which signed a memorandum of understanding in May as its first step towards membership, and Japan Airlines, which announced last month that it wanted to join - the alliance's network will expand to 686 destinations in 140 countries.

Bangalore and two more points in Egypt brought on-line: Bangalore has become the fifth gateway in India served by the oneworld network, with British Airways launching services late last month to the Indian city - which has the IATA three letter code BLR - five times a week from its London Heathrow hub. Overall, the airline increased frequencies between its London hub and the subcontinent from 19 to 35 a week. Its Mumbai schedules have been doubled to two a day, while Chennai flights tripled to six a week. Delhi will also go double daily from next year. Kolkata is the fifth point in India served by the alliance.

The two new destinations in Egypt, brought on-line last month by affiliate GB Airways, which flies as a franchisee of British Airways, are the Red Sea resorts of Sharm El Sheik, which it now serves three times a week, and Hurghada, served twice weekly, both from London Gatwick tomorrow. The new routes double the number of destinations served by oneworld in Egpyt. British Airways and Iberia both serve the capital Cairo, with another BA franchisee BMED operating to Alexandria Burg el Arab. Royal Jordanian will add two more Egyptian airports when it joins the alliance at the turn of 2006/2007 - Al Arish and Alexandria International.

 

Dubai to be Aer Lingus' first longhaul destination outside USA: Aer Lingus is to launch non-stop services between its Dublin hub and Dubai, flying Airbus A330s three times a week from March. It will be the airline's first longhaul destination outside the USA in what it described "the first step in the expansion of its new longhaul network". Meantime, the airline has inaugurated three new shorthaul routes - between Dublin and both Fuerteventura (Spain) and Riga (Latvia) and between Cork and Warsaw. Dubai is already on the oneworld map, through services by British Airways from London and Cathay Pacific from Hong Kong.

American launches flights from DFW to Osaka: American Airlines launched its first new international destination from the new Terminal D at its Dallas/Fort Worth hub on 1 November - Osaka. It is now serving the Japanese city's Kansai Airport from DFW daily, with Boeing 777s. Osaka is already served by oneworld partners Cathay Pacific and Finnair.

American moves into new international terminal at its DFW home: American Airlines' international flights at its Dallas/Fort Worth hub are now operating from the airport's new international Terminal D, which the airline describes as "truly a world-class facility in every respect that will provide our customers with impressive levels of comfort, service and convenience".

American and its regional affiliate American Eagle, which is also part of oneworld, serve 35 international destinations from DFW. Initially, they will operate some 78 flights a day from Terminal D, expanding to around 115 daily flights in the coming months. British Airways, the other oneworld partner serving DFW, had already transferred into new facility.

The US$1.2 billion building, which offers two million sq ft of passenger space and 67 retail outlets and restaurants, is connected to the airport's other terminals by a new Skylink transit system.

Cathay Pacific continues winning ways: Cathay Pacific has continued its award-winning ways, being voted Airline of the Year and Best Airline North Asia in the 2005 TTG Travel Awards. The awards aim to "honour the most outstanding organisations in Asia-Pacific's travel industry", with Cathay Pacific "unanimously" voted the winner by readers of leading travel industry magazines TTG Asia, TTG China, BTN Asia Pacific and BTN China.

LAN named best in South America again: LAN Airlines has won yet another award as the best airline in South America, this time from the Airports Council International-Latin America and Caribbean (ACI-LAC). The award was presented on the basis of the airline's service, capacity, on-time ratings, efficiency and compliance with regulations and procedures.

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, plus their dozen affiliates.

Three more airlines are lining up to join - Royal Jordanian, which will come on board at the turn of 2006/2007; Malev, which signed a memorandum of understanding in May as its first step towards membership, and Japan Airlines, which announced last month that it wants to join.

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 best airline alliance by readers of Business Traveller magazine for the second year running in its 2005 poll and the World's Leading Airline Alliance for the second year running in the latest World Travel Awards, based on votes cast by80,000 travel agency professionalsfrom more than 200 countries.

It is also the only alliance whose members reported collective profits last year.

Remarque : LAN affiliates LAN ECUADOR and LAN ARGENTINA are not members of oneworld.

ends