aword from oneworld: February 2009

Iberia is next oneworld airline to move to London Heathrow's Terminal 3:  oneworld^®'s biggest airport co-location project to date moves another key step further towards completion a week today, with Iberia moving from London Heathrow's Terminal 2 into Terminal 3 next Wednesday (25 February).

On the same day, British Airways moves its final few flights from Terminal 1 - including those serving Spain, Helsinki, Lisbon and Nice - to Terminal 3, too. 

Finnair transferred last month from Terminal 1 to Terminal 3, where American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines and Royal Jordanian were already based.

All Qantas operations and BA flights serving Singapore and Australia follow into Terminal 3 later.  With the rest of BA's flights now using the new Terminal 5, the moves mean that all oneworld flights will operate from just two terminals, rather being spread across all five.

British Airways will use check-in desks alongside Finnair in zone G, with Iberia using adjacent check-in facilities in zone F.

Terminal 3's customer areas are being given a massive up-grade to bring them up to the same standard as those offered in the new world-class Terminal 5.

Tell us what you'd like from us - and you could win round-the-world tickets:  Travellers are being invited to tell oneworld what services and benefits they would most like it to offer and their overall vision for the alliance in the decade ahead - for a chance to win a pair of Business Class tickets for travel all the way around the world on its airline members.  The invitation is being made to mark the 10^th anniversary of oneworld's launch.  Every idea posted at www.oneworld.com/10years will be reviewed by a jury of airline industry experts, with the author of the best idea winning the pair of round-the-world Business Class.  For full details, terms and conditions, see www.oneworld.com/10years.

New destinations in Europe and USA to join oneworld network:  New destinations in Europe and the USA are being joined to the oneworld network, with Malév Hungarian Airlines opening service to a fifth destination in Romania, Finnair inaugurating service to Norway's Bergen and affiliate member American Eagle launching flights to West Virginia's Charleston.

The new destination in Romania is Iasi (Iassy), which Malév will serve from its Budapest hub from the end of March with an initial five Bombardier Q400 flights a week, building to six from June.  Iasi has the three-letter IATA code IAS.

Finnair will add Bergen (BGO) to its and oneworld's networks from 22 May, with five flights a week between its Helsinki home and the West Norwegian port. 

American Eagle will bring Charleston (CRW) on-line from 7 April, with an initial six Embraer ERJ135s a week to and from New York LaGuardia. 

Iberia to add Zagreb to its network:  Iberia is to add Zagreb to its network with twice-weekly seasonal flights from its Madrid hub between 4 July and 20 September.  The capital of Croatia is already on the oneworld map through a connection by Malév Hungarian Airlines with its Budapest hub.  The Spanish airline will also resume the seasonal service it launched last year to Croatia's coastal city of Dubrovnik - from 16 June, with three flights a week until late September.   British Airways is the other oneworld carrier serving this destination, with flights from London.

British Airways launches flights to St Kitts:  British Airways has launched its new service to St Kitts from London Gatwick, with an initial single round-trip a week, via Antigua.   St Kitts is already on the oneworld network through American Airlines.

JAL links Osaka Kansai with Seoul Gimpo:  Japan Airlines has launched services between its Osaka Kansai hub and Seoul Gimpo with daily Boeing 767s, reducing its established three daily flights between Kansai and Seoul Incheon to two a day.  It already serves Gimpo from Tokyo.

Madrid and London are member elect Mexicana's first European cities:  oneworld member elect Mexicana has launched its first flights to Europe.  It is now linking its Mexico City hub non-stop with Madrid daily and London Gatwick with an initial two flights a week, doubling to four a week from 17 February.  On both routes, it offers a two-class product, including its new lie-flat seats in its Clase Ejecutiva business class.

• Mexicana is to establish a new regional airline in its Mexico home base next month, to act as a feeder to the mainline airline and its Mexicana Click subsidiary. It will be based at Guadalajara, with initial routes to Chihuahua, Ciudad Juárez, Monterrey, Puerto Vallarta, Torreón and Veracruz, served by a fleet of 13 new-generation Bombardier CRJ-200s, each seating up to 50 passengers.

QantasLink to connect Townsville with Mount Isa:  Affiliate member QantasLink is to launch flights between Townsville and Mount Isa from 2 March.

Qantas launches A380 services to London Heathrow and Singapore:  Qantas has launched its new Airbus A380 into service on its "kangaroo route" between its Sydney hub and London, via Singapore.   The airline's new flagship will operate an initial three round-trips a week on the route

Japan Airlines doubles Narita-London Heathrow schedules:  Japan Airlines is to double frequencies between its Tokyo Narita international base and oneworld's London Heathrow hub from late March to two a day, when, as previously announced it suspends its daily services between the UK airport and Osaka Kansai.

Cathay Pacific adds flights to Paris, Shanghai and Jakarta:  Cathay Pacific is to increase frequencies to Paris, Shanghai and Jakarta from 29 March "in response to sustained customer demand".  It will add four flights a week to the French capital, giving a double daily service.  Flights to Shanghai Pudong will be tripled to three a day.  Jakarta's existing twice-daily operation will be supplemented by three more flights a week.

Malév relaunches its website and adds more on-line check-in options:  Malév Hungarian Airlines has given its website a complete overhaul, with a new design and more services including an improved on-line booking facility.  It has also expanded its on-line check-in option to nine destinations, so passengers can now check themselves in via its website for flights departing from London Gatwick, Madrid, Athens, Berlin, Bucharest, Frankfurt, Prague, Rome and Sofia.  The service has been available for some time for departures from the airline's Budapest base.

Cathay Pacific now lets passengers check-in via mobile phones:  Cathay Pacific and its Dragonair affiliate now let passengers check-in for flights using their mobile phones or other handheld devices.  By using their mobile web browser to visit m.cathaypacific.com, they can check in, select a seat and have a bar-code sent to their mobile device.  This bar-code can then be scanned at a self-check-in kiosk at the airport, where available, to print their boarding pass.

American to transition to ‘cashless' cabins on North American routes:  American Airlines will begin this summer to transition to "cashless" cabins on its flights within the USA and to and from Canada. On these flights, the carrier will only accept major credit or debit cards for purchases in-flight of headsets, fresh light meals, snacks, alcoholic beverages and any other items.

JAL to enable passengers to offset the CO2 from their flight:  Japan Airlines is the latest oneworld airline enabling passengers to offset if they want the CO2 gases created by their flight.  The scheme is being offered in conjunction with Recycle One, the Japanese agency of the CarbonNeutral Company, the world's leading carbon consulting and offsetting organization.

To offset the CO2 created by flying between Tokyo Narita and Hong Kong would cost an Economy passenger JPY1,500 (US$16), while Tokyo to New York would be JPY4,500 (US$48) in Economy and JPY9,000 (US$96) in Premium Economy, Business or First.

Customers participating can choose to donate their offset to one or around ten projects, focusing on clean energy technology, primarily wind power related-projects.

Similar voluntary carbon offset programmes are already offered by oneworld partners British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas.

About oneworld:  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, and around 20 affiliates including American Eagle, Dragonair, LAN Argentina, LAN Ecuador and LAN Peru.  Mexicana and its affiliate Click Mexicana will join the alliance in later 2009.  Between them, these airlines:

• Serve almost 700 airports in nearly 150 countries, with some 8.500 daily departures.
• Offer some 550 airport lounges for premium customers.
• Carry 330 million passengers a year, employ 300.000 people and operate almost 2.300 aircraft.
• Generate US$100 billion annual revenues.

oneworld is the only alliance with any member airlines based in Australia, South America or Asia's Middle East.  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 offers a wider range of alliance fares than any of its competitors.  oneworld was voted the World's Leading Airline Alliance for the sixth year running in the latest (2008) World Travel Awards.   It is the only winner of this award since it was introduced in 2003.