aword from oneworld: March 2006

March 21, 2006

Dallas Love Field joins oneworld network with launch of American services: Dallas Love Field is now part of the oneworldTM network, with the launch by American Airlines and its American Eagle regional affiliate of 16 flights a day from there to four destinations. The mainline carrier is now operating from the airport- which has the three-letter IATA code DAL - four times a day to St Louis and three times daily to Kansas City, using Boeing MD80s. American Eagle is serving Austin five times a day and San Antonio four times, using Embraer 145s.

American Eagle flies two more New York routes and another to Bahamas: oneworld affiliate American Eagle is to open service on 3 April between New York LaGuardia and Pittsburgh with four flights and between JFK and Baltimore Washington with daily round trips, all by Embraer 135 regional jets. Its new Bahamas link provides the islands with their second route to and from Chicago O'Hare. Besides its established Nassau service, the airline will now also operate weekend flights to and from Freeport from 6 May throughout the summer season, using Canadair CRJ-700 jets.

BA Connect links London City with Milan and opens two Birmingham routes: British Airways' newly-rebranded regional affiliate BA Connect, which is part of oneworld, is to launch flights from London City to Milan Malpensa from 2 May and increase frequencies from the London airport to Edinburgh from five to seven a day. From Birmingham (UK) it is to launch daily flights to both Berlin and Geneva from 26 March.

Finnair to serve Hong Kong non-stop and polish up its Polish schedules: Finnair is improving its schedules between its Helsinki home base and the Hong Kong hub of oneworld partner Cathay Pacific to offer non-stop services during the summer peak, rather than flying via Bangkok, cutting four hours from the journey. The non-stops will operate three times a week between May and July, building to five a week between July and October. It will also add two weekly frequencies to Shanghai, giving a daily service, increase Ghangzhou services to four a week and Osaka to six a week. In Europe, oneworld's Nordic partner is doubling its flights to Poland, with the launch of twice weekly flights to Krakow from 13 April and adding five weekly frequencies between its Helsinki hub and Warsaw from 26 March.

Iberia raises Jo'burg frequencies to daily: Iberia has increased frequencies between its Madrid hub and Johannesburg by two flights a week, giving a daily service. At Madrid, it and all oneworld partners are now operating from the airport's EUR 6 billion, world-class new Terminal 4.

Qantas ups Brisbane-Auckland frequencies: Qantas is increasing frequencies between Brisbane and Auckland by three a week, giving a total of ten, from 29 March, all flown by two-class Boeing 737-300s.

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, plus their dozen affiliates. Three more airlines are lining up to join - Royal Jordanian, which will come on board at the turn of 2006/2007; Malev, which has been elected on board with effect from early 2007; and Japan Airlines, which is seeking membership.

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 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 for the second year running in its 2005 poll and the World's Leading Airline Alliance for the third 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 in their latest full year.

Note: LAN affiliates LAN ECUADOR and LAN ARGENTINA are not members of oneworld.

Moderator: worth making this a sticky?

AY introduced this service for a few months last northern summer and I used it to fly MEL-HKG-HEL-ARN, departing late evening out of MEL on QF and connecting to a morning departure out of HKG, arriving HEL mid-afternoon, then Stockholm around 1600 local.

This was a very efficient connection, allowing an afternoon arrival into Europe and thus an easier transition to sleep and time zone adjustment. If similar timings and connections are available I would thoroughly recommend. ^

HEL is also one of the best airports for arrival into Europe with easy and quick connections to most other ports.

With the new J class product coming on-line, this should be a good option.