aword from oneworld: August 2002

2002 年 9 月 11 日

ANOTHER TWO FARE PRODUCTS CONFIRM oneworld's INNOVATIVE LEAD: oneworld has confirmed its position as the most innovative of the global airline groupings in the field of alliance fare products with details of ten ticket types now posted on www.oneworld.com.

They offer travellers great value, multi-sector journeys, with the ultimate in flexibility. The alliance fares are geared around each customer's own individual needs, using the services of any of oneworld's high quality airlines – American Airlines, British Airways, Qantas, Cathay Pacific, Iberia, LanChile, Finnair or Aer Lingus. Together, they offer an unrivalled international network spanning some 135 countries.

The latest two fare products detailed on the alliance's website are:

Circle Trip Explorer, the ideal ticket for people who want to make a grand tour – without actually circumnavigating the globe. It offers travel to and around Asia, Australasia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. To keep things as simple as possible, prices are based on the number of continents visited – rather than mileages – and the class of travel chosen. Two stopovers in three different continents – giving a total of six stopovers – are included. Typical itineraries might be Madrid-Helsinki-Bangkok-Hong Kong-Johannesburg-London-Madrid, or Melbourne-Sydney-Hong Kong-Barcelona-London-Harare-Johannes-burg-Sydney.

Circle Pacific, which offers customers excellent value and great flexibility if they are making trips around the Pacific. Circle Pacific is available to those starting and ending their travel in Asia, Australasia, North or South America, with fares depending on each individual itinerary and the class of travel selected. Four free stopovers are included, with more available. Journeys must take a minimum of five days, for first or business class customers, or ten days in economy, up to a maximum of six months.

The eight alliance fares already displayed on www.oneworld.com include the round-the-world oneworld Explorer, the six continental Visit Passes, and worldflyer, which offers value and flexibility to small to medium-sized businesses in selected countries, whose employees travel regularly on specific routes.

For further details of all oneworld global products, see www.oneworld.com/products/home.cfm

WORLD FIRST LINKS ALLIANCE FARES WITH INCLUSIVE TOUR: The oneworld team in Japan has just marked up what it believes to be a first for any of the world's airline alliances – linking with a holiday operator to offer inclusive tours using its special alliance fares. And not just any package holiday – but what must be among the ultimate world tours.

With Nippon Travel Agency, oneworld is offering a luxury, 32-day round-the-world tour – with prices at Yen 4.45 million (US$37,000) a person with First class travel and Yen 3.9 million (US$33,000) with business class seats, including accommodation at five-star hotels, with all meals and insurance included. Using oneworld's Explorer fare, the trip will take in six continents, with stops at Hong Kong, Australia's Ayers Rock, Africa's Victoria Falls, Finland's Aurora, Peru, and North America's Niagara Falls and Las Vegas, with flights on all five of the oneworld carriers represented in Japan – American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair and Qantas.

LANECUADOR TO TAKE OFF SOON: LanChile, the leading South American airline, is to launch a new subsidiary in Ecuador. LanEcuador has been granted rights to fly from Quito and/or Guayaquil to Santiago, Miami, New York, Madrid and Buenos Aires. The group aims to launch these services as soon as possible. LanEcuador will be an Ecuadorian company under the LanChile holding.

WELCOME ON BOARD, MAN: Manx Airlines has become part of British Airways' CitiExpress regional subsidiary, bringing its Isle of Man home base onto the oneworld global network. The carrier became part of the British Airways group through last year's acquisition of British Regional Airlines. All its flights now operate with a BA code and its services match those offered by the rest of the BA CitiExpress operation. Manx operates 179 departures a week from the Isle of Man (in the which is in the Irish Sea between the UK mainland and Ireland) to ten destinations – Belfast, Birmingham, Dublin, Glasgow, Leeds-Bradford, Liverpool, London Gatwick, Luton, Manchester and Southampton – besides linking Jersey with Cardiff and Cork.

AA COMPLETES US$300 MILLION OF IMPROVEMENTS AT LOS ANGELES: American Airlines has officially dedicated its Terminal 4 at oneworld hub Los Angeles after its wide-ranging, US$300 million improvement project. The facility is now linked to the Tom Bradley International Terminal – used by oneworld partners Aer Lingus, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, LanChile and Qantas for their own services - with a moving walkway, smoothing transfers for passengers taking code-share connections between the airlines and AA. The up-grade, which took four years to complete, was the largest project of its type yet undertaken by a single carrier at LAX.

BA REMAINS THE WORLD'S BIGGEST INTERNATIONAL AIRLINE: British Airways has retained its position as the world's biggest international airline, according to statistics released by IATA, the International Air Transport Association. The UK oneworld carrier heads the list for the most international revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) flown in the latest edition of IATA's annual World Air Transport Statistics. BA clocked up just short of 100 billion RPKs in 2001, nearly 20 per cent more than its nearest rival.

FINNAIR FLIES THE BEST BUBBLY: The Laurent Perrier Grand Siècle Brut Millésime 1990 champagne served by Finnair in its longhaul business class has been selected as the best bubbly served in-flight by any airline by a 35 member panel put together by the US edition of Business Traveler magazine in a tasting of more than 250 wines submitted by the world's airlines. It is the latest success achieved by the Finnish airline's cellar. In 2000, 1999 and 1997, it received the overall Best Cellar in the Sky award from Business Traveler, with its white wine picked as the magazine's best in 2000 and 1998. It received Decanter magazine's award for the best airline wine list in 1997.

TOP CHEFS TO COOK UP LANCHILE MENUS: LanChile has signed an agreement with the Association of International Chefs "Les Toques Blanches", whose members include the most widely admired chefs throughout Chile, which will see them, with a panel of leading international chefs, create the menus offered by the airline in-flight during the next two years. They intend to develop meals that will appeal internationally, using South America's finest ingredients – crab, grouper, krill, tuna, Magellan lamb, Argentina beef, and fruit and vegetables only found in the continent – with an emphasis on the region's cooking.

AER LINGUS ADDS FOUR MORE ROUTES: Aer Lingus is to add four new routes to its network from 27 October – from Dublin to Geneva, Prague and Vienna, and from Cork to Malaga.

LANCHILE'S TOPS IN LATIN AMERICA, SAY GERMAN FREQUENT FLYERS: LanChile has emerged the best Latin American airline and the second best in North and South America overall in a survey of economy class services provided by more than a hundred airlines around the world by leading German tourism magazine Reise & Preise, conducted among some 4,500 frequent flyers.

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