aword from oneworld: July 2005

2005 年 7 月 13 日

France's Grenoble and Mississippi's Gulfport-Biloxi join oneworld's network: Two more destinations are preparing to join the network served by the oneworld™ alliance:

  • Grenoble, which will become the alliance's 12th destination in France when British Airways launches seasonal flights to the ski gateway from London Gatwick from 10 December. It will serve the route five times a week with two-class Boeing 737-500s.
  • Gulfport-Biloxi, which will be served by affiliate American Eagle from 30 October, with twice-daily Embraer ERJ145 jets non-stop between alliance hub Dallas/Fort Worth and the Mississippi Gulf coast gateway, which is famous for sunny beaches, world-class casinos and other attractions.

As previously announced, British Airways has just linked Hassi Messaoud to the oneworld network, launching twice-weekly flights between the Algerian oil and gas centre and London Gatwick.

American Eagle adds ten destinations to Dallas/Fort Worth hub: American Eagle, the American Airlines and oneworld regional affiliate, has launched ten new routes from the alliance's Dallas/Fort Worth hub, with three daily non-stops to Savannah (Georgia), twice dailies to Madison (Wisconsin) and Mobile (Alabama) and dailies to Evansville (Indiana), Green Bay (Wisconsin), Moline (Illinois), Rochester (Minnesota), Toledo (Ohio) and seasonal services to Traverse City (Michigan). It will add Chattanooga (Tennessee) from 1 August. All flights are being operated by Embraer regional jets.

 

Iberia Regional opens five new routes this month: Air Nostrum/Iberia Regional is opening three new routes from Valencia and two from Alicante this month. From Valencia, it will serve Lisbon daily and Casablanca and Lanzarote thrice-weekly. Alicante's new destinations are San Sebastian, to be served twice a week, and Valladolid weekly. All destinations are already on the Iberia mainline map. Separately, Iberia itself is launching direct flights between Barcelona and Marrakech, with Airbus A320s operating the route every Saturday. It will continue to serve the Moroccan destination from Madrid.

Qantas to launch Beijing flights from January: Qantas will become the fourth oneworld partner to serve Beijing, when it launches flights between its Sydney hub and the Chinese capital on 9 January with an initial three flights a week by two-class Airbus A330-300s. The Australian carrier already serves Shanghai, with frequencies there being increased to four a week from November. Announcing the Beijing route today, Executive General Manager John Borghetti said the airline expected to be serving both Chinese destinations daily within two years, in response to growing business and leisure demand between China and Australia. Beijing is already served by oneworld partners British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Finnair.

Affiliate GB Airways adds three routes from Manchester: oneworld affiliate GB Airways, which flies as a franchisee of British Airways, is launching three new routes from Manchester later this year, with three flights a week to Marrakech and twice-weeklies to both Gran Canaria and Lanzarote. It already serves all three destinations from London - from where it will increase its current twice-weekly flights to Tenerife South to daily. It started operations from Manchester earlier this year and currently flies from there to Dubrovnik, Malaga, Malta and Paphos.

Cathay increases frequencies from Hong Kong home to London and LA: Cathay Pacific is increasing frequencies between its Hong Kong home and two other key oneworld hubs. It will add a fourth daily non-stop to and from London Heathrow, from 1 December. The new flights, operated by Airbus A340-300s will leave HKG at 09.05 am, arriving at London at 2.50 pm. The return sector will depart LHR at 9.15 pm, landing at 5.30 pm the next day. Flying alongside it on this route are oneworld partners British Airways, with three daily Boeing 747-400s, and Qantas, with three 747-400s a week. It has meantime added a third daily non-stop frequency to and from Los Angeles, from where it code-shares on alliance partner American Airlines extensively to points across the USA.

LAN orders another 25 Airbus A318/319s with options on 15 more: LAN has ordered another 25 Airbus A318/A319s for delivery from the second half of next year, with options on another 15. It has already committed to nine of the A319s, for delivery from this year to 2008. The new aircraft will operate flights within Latin America, including routes in Argentina, Peru and Chile. Some will also be used to replace its existing Boeing 737-200s. The LAN alliance currently operates a total of 56 passenger aircraft.

AA shares Qantas' lounge at Honolulu: Honolulu is the latest point around the world where oneworld partners have co-located airport facilities, with American Airlines now sharing Qantas' Club Lounge. The unit has been co-branded to reflect both airlines' identities, with AA staff joining their counterparts at Qantas to man it. The facility can be used by Emerald and Sapphire tier members in all oneworld airline frequent flyer programmes.

Iberia business class passengers can access emails on longhaul flights: Iberia is enabling passengers in its new Iberia Business Plus cabin on longhaul routes to access their email and live web chat rooms. It is charging customers US$9.95 a flight to send and receive an unlimited number of email messages plus real-time web chat throughout the flight, or US$4.95 for up to four hours' access.

More awards for American and Aer Lingus: American Airlines and Aer Lingus are the latest oneworld carriers honoured in the various industry award schemes. American has been voted best overall airline by readers of business magazine LatinFinance for the ninth year running. It was also named best airline between the USA and Latin America/Caribbean and best within the Caribbean, with its business and economy classes also honoured as best in the region. This year, the airline also won in two new categories - best frequent flyer programme, and the Miami Admirals Club was named best airport lounge. Across the Atlantic, Aer Lingus has been named Airline of the Year 2005 by the Irish Chambers of Commerce's Air Transport Users Council (ATUC), based on an extensive independent survey of Irish business people, asked to assess airlines based on service and overall value for money.

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 some 600 destinations and 135 countries. 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 in its 2004 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. Note: LAN affiliates LAN ECUADOR and LAN ARGENTINA are not a members of oneworld.