Kingfisher Airlines to Become a Part of Oneworld

India’s Kingfisher Airlines is all ready to become the subcontinent’s first airline to be a part of any global airline alliance. Kingfisher will be a member of oneworld, premier airline consortium, from Feb 10, 2012.

Kingfisher Airlines is all set to become a full-time member of oneworld. The airline said on Monday it will be joining one of the world’s premier airline alliances from Feb 10, 2012.

Once Kingfisher Airlines joins oneworld, it will become the Indian subcontinent’s first carrier to become a part of any international airline group and the first of the three carriers to join the consortium in its biggest membership expansion drive in years. Germany’s airberlin is scheduled to join it shortly afterwards and Malaysia Airlines will be the third to join the alliance in the year.

Kingfisher Airlines expects the move to boost the carrier financially.

“It will strengthen us financially, through revenues from passengers transferring to our network from our oneworld partners and the cost reduction opportunities the alliance offers,” Kingfisher Airlines’ Chairman Vijay Mallya said in a statement.

“We will be flying as part of the world's leading quality airline alliance - and the first carrier from the subcontinent to be accepted into any of the global airline groups,” he said.

India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world with a blooming aviation market. And the fact that India remains one of the world’s leading holiday destinations doesn’t hurt either. India based passengers as well as international travellers who are on constant lookout for cheap flight tickets to India will surely be pleased with the news. With Kingfisher joining the alliance, there will be better connection on offer, which in turn might assist travellers in landing up with cheap flight tickets.

In addition, the membership with oneworld will allow the Indian airline’s frequent flyers club members to redeem their travel miles in other carriers of the group as well.

Formed in 1999, oneworld is an alliance of a number of carriers, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Finnair, among others. The addition of the Kingfisher will enable the group to serve 800 airports in approximately 150 countries. The airline consortium has a combined fleet of more than 2,250 aircraft, serving more than 300 million passengers a year.

Kingfisher to Boost oneworld’s network

Kingfisher’s inclusion in the group will allow oneworld to offer better connections on flights to India from different parts of the world.

Bruce Ashby, CEO oneworld was quoted as saying: “Kingfisher Airlines will expand oneworld’s network substantially in a key region of growing travel demand, with a carrier that matches our demanding requirements, while enabling Kingfisher Airlines to offer its customers a truly global network on quality partners. We are looking forward to welcoming them to the oneworld alliance in February.”

Currently, seven of oneworld’s airlines – American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Japan Airlines, Qantas and Royal Jordanian – operate flights to India.

Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad are the five Indian gateways that are served by the airlines presently.