Pretty reliable source says they've signed the MoU this morning (India time) to join OW. Interesting considering the Jet/AA partnership and the IT partnerships with CO and DL.

http://airlineroute.net/2010/02/22/it-oneworld/

Finnair confirms the news in its press release:

http://www.finnairgroup.com/group/gr...000463982.html

"23 Feb 2010

Finnair Plc Press release Indian Kingfisher joins oneworld alliance

Kingfisher, the leading airline on India's internal routes, has announced that
it is joining the oneworld alliance. Finnair flies daily to Delhi, from where
Kingfisher has excellent onward connections.

Kingfisher's joining oneworld means for Finnair a very extensive destination
network within India. Kingfisher is one of the world's few five-star quality
airlines and it complements Finnair service network in India very well, says
Finnair Vice President Paavo Virkkunen, who is responsible for oneworld
relations.

Including Kingfisher, oneworld has a total of approximately 800 destinations in
150 countries, to which the alliance flies with around 2,350 aircraft.
Kingfisher has around 400 daily departures and oneworld around 9,000.
Kingfisher brings to oneworld 58 new Indian destinations.

The starting date of membership will be announced when India's aviation
authorities have approved Kingfisher's application. It generally takes around
18 months to compete the membership formalities, so Kingfisher is expected to
become a full member of oneworld during 2011.

oneworld airlines carry more than 340 million passengers per year. The oneworld
alliance members are currently American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay
Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, Kingfisher, LAN, Mal�v Hungarian
Airlines, Mexicana, Qantas and Royal Jordanian as well as around 20
subsidiaries. S7 Airlines will join the alliance during 2010 Airlines.

Finnair Plc
Communications
23.2.2010"

oh my... that's excellent news!

EDIT: The oneworld website confirms it: http://www.oneworld.com/ow/news/details?objectID=20873

Apparently, BA is the sponsor.

BA sponsoring any Indian carrier to join OW would have been a surprise a few years back, but now it's a different story between no longer having the choice to settle for the least competitive amongst the big 3 Indian airlines but having to bring in an Indian carrier anyway. [IT may not have the same long-term financial viability as AI since IT is not capable of drinking from government taps like AI, but is IT financially weaker than 9W?]

Given my lifetime AA elite status and its OW equivalent, I hope to see AA and IT in OW for a long, long time. I am glad to see this green-lighted.

Between IT and 9W, I was hoping it was IT that would make it into OW, so this is excellent news indeed! They're going to take a bunch of additional business off CX for flights into India, or at least, mine.

My 2 cents:

Good thing that Jet is now relegated to choosing between ST and *A - always hoped it was *A, but they kept creeping towards OW...

LH remains interested in bringing in 9W into * Alliance.

Nice - any documentation/info with regard to this??

Hopefully AI just goes down the toilet and gives up their *A slot!

Heres a thought for all you Jet FFers:

IT will take 18 months to join OW. Continue flying Jet until then but stick the miles to AA and then eventually use them for IT redemptions.

I do not think LH will discharge AI, they will try instead to get 9W on board as an addition. If it happens it will be interesting--since 9W just lost their previous ex-LH hand CEO to BMI and usually this was a deciding factor towards Star, and because getting an airline with a higher service class will have obvious implications to current LH operations in India.
However since it seems BA is IT sponsor, I would prefer AA step up and sponsor Jet to OW, it should not be that difficult. And it seems that at the moment ST is relatively in shambles, after the JAL debacle.

deleted

I thought 9w would land up with One World:

http://profit.ndtv.com/2009/06/25145...e-World-A.html

i'm glad its it joining ow & not 9w....i have a lot of it miles & it will be good to have the option to use them when i am travelling to europe or america....

Man...I was hoping they would make it to *A I hope atleast 9w makes it to *A and not to ST.