Helsinki Flyer

27.7.2010 14:30:00 - OMX Helsinki, News
Finnair Plc Investor News Finnair and Air Berlin to cooperate in Europe-Asia traffic
The oneworld airline alliance and Air Berlin, Germany's second largest airline,
have agreed that the airline will become a member of the alliance. Air Berlin
is expected to join the alliance at the beginning of 2012. At the same time
Finnair and Air Berlin also agreed on bilateral cooperation.

Finnair and Air Berlin begin a code-share cooperation in November 2010, within
which the companies plan to cooperate commercially in traffic between Germany
and Finland, and later in Finnair's Asian traffic. At the same time, the
companies also plan to cooperate in terms of their frequent-flyer programmes.

"For Finnair, cooperation with Air Berlin will provide a stronger foothold in
Central Europe, which will support Finnair's Asian strategy significantly,"
says Finnair's President & CEO Mika Vehviläinen.

"Air Berlin's network covers the area of Europe with the highest purchasing
power. Cooperation will lead to numerous new, fast connections from
German-speaking Central Europe via Helsinki to Asia. We will provide for
business passengers a competitive alternative, which will boost our corporate
sales in an important market," says Vehviläinen.

For Finnair's Finnish customers, closer cooperation with Air Berlin will also
open up new destinations in both German-speaking Europe and the Mediterranean
area.

Finnair Plc
Communications
27.7.2010

WIZ

This is great news!!!

Justinus

Indeed, especially for us AY-minded FFs living in Germany... ^

I hope however that AB would introduce some kind of J class also for there short-haul flights. Right now they have it only for long haul and to/from TLV.

Any news about exactly when AB is going to join OW?

Gnopps

Hopefully this won't affect AB pricing BER/DUS-HEL though..

Ed Size

AB will join OW early 2012. Time will tell if this is great news.

mosburger

With the recent Etihad investment in Air Berlin, is the AY-AB co-operation on the Asian routes over before it really even began?

http://www.businesstraveller.com/mid...lin-investment

intuition

... massive codeshares and full integration of FF-programmes... Maybe the AB joining OW is not on the table anymore?!?

NoWindowSeat

I wouldn't be surprised to see some A350 order cancellations in 2012/13 by AY..

intuition

Don't even joke about that...
But it will be very interesting to see if the OW-joining goes through. AB will open the ABD-route mid january, and the plan for joining OW was "early 2012", so we will soon know.

Distance-wise (and therefore economy-wise) AY still have an upperhand for some of the routes, even for a Berlin-based flyer.

http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=txl-auh...xl-hel-hkg-syd
http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=txl-auh-tyo;txl-hel-tyo
http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=txl-auh-hkg;txl-hel-hkg

PVDtoDEL

Really interesting article. Should make a good blog post...

Helsinki Flyer

The join date is 20th of March.

http://www.airberlin.com/site/pressn...=3613&LANG=eng

airberlin to be part of oneworld alliance from 20 March 02.02.2012



airberlin will become a full member of oneworld® with effect from Tuesday 20 March 2012, adding Europe’s sixth largest carrier to the premier global airline alliance. Austrian airline NIKI, also a member of the airberlin group, will join oneworld at the same time as an affiliate member.

airberlin received its green light to board oneworld after successfully completing a thorough review of its readiness conducted by British Airways, which is sponsoring its entry into the alliance, with the oneworld central team.

So from 20 March 2012, it will be offering oneworld’s full range of services – and substantially expand the alliance’s network in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, and throughout South and Central Europe. It will add almost 70 destinations to the alliance’s map, extending oneworld’s global coverage to some 840 destinations in 150 countries, served by more than 9,000 departures a day operated by a combined fleet of some 2,500 aircraft, carrying nearly 300 million passengers a year, with annual revenues of almost US$ 100 billion.

Joining oneworld will strengthen airberlin’s competitiveness, enabling it to offer customers an unrivalled alliance global network served by partners including some of the best and biggest airlines in the world.

It will become part of oneworld three months before it moves into the new Brandenburg airport at its Berlin home, which will open on 3 June with an eventual capacity for 27 million passengers a year. airberlin and its alliance partners will be co-located at Europe’s newest hub, sharing lounges and many other facilities, to offer customers there the smoothest of connections.

oneworld CEO Bruce Ashby said: “airberlin makes an ideal oneworld partner. It has an excellent reputation for customer service – right in line with oneworld’s focus on quality. oneworld already features five of Europe’s best airlines. Adding the continent’s sixth biggest carrier and the second largest airline based in the continent’s biggest economy will greatly enhance our coverage throughout this region and, with the other airlines joining us this year, position oneworld more strongly still as the alliance of choice, particularly for global business travellers.”

airberlin CEO Hartmut Mehdorn added: “Becoming a member of oneworld is one of the most significant departures so far for airberlin. It will strengthen our competitive position considerably, enabling us to offer our customers a truly global network together with our partners who include some of the best and biggest airlines in the world, while enabling us also to tap into all the financial benefits that come from being part of a global alliance, through additional passenger feed and participation in various efficiency programmes. We are very pleased and proud to be lining up to join what is clearly the world’s top quality airline grouping on 20 March.”

When airberlin joins oneworld on 20 March, members of its topbonus frequent flyer programme will be able to earn and redeem mileage awards on all oneworld partners – American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN Airlines, Malév Hungarian Airlines, Qantas, Royal Jordanian, S7 Airlines and almost 20 affiliated airlines.

Also from 20 March, the 120 million members of the established oneworld airlines’ frequent flyer programmes will be able to earn and redeem awards and tier status points and receive all other oneworld benefits on airberlin and NIKI.

airberlin’s network – serving more than 160 destinations in 40 countries – will be covered by oneworld’s full and extensive range of alliance fares and sales products from 1 April 2012.

Currently all oneworld’s active member airlines serve Germany, flying to a total of seven gateways in there. airberlin will add another 18 destinations in its home country.

Its alliance implementation programme has represented one of the most extensive projects in its history, with working groups covering some 20 streams of activity. Projects are nearing completion to bring its various internal processes and procedures into line with the alliance’s requirements, and extensive employee training and communications programmes are now underway at airberlin and the alliance’s existing members, to ensure they are ready to provide oneworld’s customer services and benefits across the expanded alliance from 20 March.

Since accepting an invitation to join the alliance in July 2010, airberlin has implemented code-sharing with seven established oneworld partners - American Airlines, British Airways, Finnair, Iberia, Malév Hungarian Airlines, S7 and Royal Jordanian.

nordic

Is this new? i was browsing expertflyer.com and found some codeshare-flights HEL-VIE and beyond (ARN, CPH, NCE, FLR at least9.

remymartin

Niki is a subsidiary of AB. Do you mean AY tix are operated by niki?

WilcoRoger

Any experience with booking AY+ redemption on AB, especially YQ? AFIAK AB doesn't charge YQ on redemptions (neither does BA on AB redemptions) so how is AY doing?

jobi

AB does charge YQ in its own program, BA (and apparently) AA do not.