These benefits are planned from the start of their new transpacific joint business, effective 1 April 2011.
Code-sharing expanded extensively and new routes launched
London –
• Schedule alignment and co-location at key hubs to smooth and speed connections
• Expanded code-sharing takes AA and JL code to more destinations
• New commemorative transpacific fares offered from today
• Airlines expected to gain more revenue through increased alliance activity
oneworld alliance partners American Airlines and Japan Airlines (JAL) today announced a host of customer benefits planned from the start of their new transpacific joint business, effective 1 April 2011.
Building on their established relationship as oneworld members, the two airlines are embarking on a joint business venture covering their operations between North America and Asia, offering customers more routing choices, greater access to a wider variety of fares, reduced connection times and greater convenience.
With effect from the start of their summer 2011 flying schedules – 27 March for JAL and 5 April for American -,they will align their schedules at Tokyo Narita and Tokyo Haneda and at the key North American cities of New York, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth and Los Angeles – four of American’s five cornerstone markets. This schedule alignment will provide travellers with a greater choice in scheduled flight times, while reducing connection times and overall travel times to many destinations and increasing potential connections to more points.
In addition, the two airlines also plan to increase code-sharing to a total of 123 routes over the next few months, increasing the number of destination choices available to customers. This will make it easier for customers to travel on the airlines‘ combined route networks.
Additional future customer benefits of their joint business include:
- A special commemorative Economy Class fare for sale in Japan for travel between Japan and the United States. Sales begin today for travel between February and March.
- On-line check in and boarding pass printing with either the airline operating the flight, or the one the ticket was booked through.
- Integrated on-line flight information on both airlines‘ websites.
- Increased opportunity for mileage promotions for frequent flyers on both airlines.
- More integrated pricing and programmes for corporate customers and travel agencies.
Besides the joint business between Asia and North America which American and Japan Airlines will start this April, JAL has also been moving ahead fast with other oneworld airlines to deepen its participation in the alliance to maximise its revenue opportunities and deliver considerable advantages to customers.
oneworld Chief Executive Bruce Ashby said: „Japan Airlines is a highly valued member of oneworld and all of us throughout the world’s premier alliance are committed to working more closely with JAL as it establishes itself as an even stronger airline and partner, for the benefit of our customers, employees and all stakeholders. The rapid progress we have achieved so far is testimony to oneworld’s commitment to Japan and Japanese customers.
„We are confident that in an increasingly alliance-focused airline industry, Japan Airlines‘ renewed approach to oneworld and its partners, and the impending launch of its joint business with American will significantly further strengthen oneworld’s competitiveness, and place us in a better position to contend for a bigger piece of market share over the Pacific.“
American Airlines President Tom Horton stated: „We are pleased to partner with Japan Airlines to bring expanded benefits to our customers. We firmly believe our joint business will benefit all stakeholders – our customers, our financial partners, and our employees. Japan Airlines has been an excellent partner, and together, we are preparing for the next decade – a decade that is likely to see growth in air travel between North America and Asia.“
JAL President Masaru Onishi added: „We are delighted to begin bringing our customers the benefits of our joint business with American Airlines. With our complementary strengths, the Japan Airlines-American team is well positioned to pursue further service enhancements for our customers and greater synergies for our businesses. Japan Airlines is strongly committed to our corporate revitalization, and I am confident that this joint business will raise our competitiveness in this vital region, improve our profitability and aid us in achieving our goal.“
Code-sharing between JAL and many of its alliance partners has also been expanded extensively and operations consolidated at a number of key airports, making it easier for passengers to travel between Japan and many other parts of the world and vice versa.
Besides the code-sharing developments marked today with American, JAL has also increased code-sharing with British Airways to more than twice the number of destinations in Europe covered previously, with 13 routes added in the past nine months, taking to 23 the number of cities in the continent served by BA flights also carrying the JL prefix.
At Tokyo Haneda, Asia’s newest international hub, oneworld offers customers the most extensive international network, including the only flights between the gateway and Europe (with JAL’s newly launched flights to Paris CDG and the start next month of services by British Airways to London Heathrow). oneworld is also the only alliance offering flights from Haneda to San Francisco, through JAL’s recently opened new route, or to New York, with American launching this route on 18 February.
With Cathay Pacific also now offering twice-dailies between Haneda and its own Hong Kong hub and with JAL opening service from Haneda to Bangkok, Honolulu, Paris, San Francisco, Singapore and Taipei Songshan in addition to its established links between the airport and Beijing, Hong Kong, Seoul Gimpo and Shanghai Hongqaio, oneworld’s carriers together serve 12 international destinations from the gateway – more than any other alliance, and with more international capacity.
All JAL and American Airlines‘ transpacific flights carry the codes of both airlines while JAL and Cathay Pacific code-shares on all the flights they operate between Japan and Hong Kong. Cathay Pacific’s „CX“ indicator is now also been placed on JAL-operated flights serving 13 Japanese cities and to Honolulu, with the JL prefix added to 13 other Cathay Pacific routes, marking a major expansion of code-sharing between oneworld’s two Asian partners.
JAL has also added more routes to its code-share agreement with oneworld’s Australian partner, Qantas, and expanded this to include, some flights by its subsidiary Jetstar (which is not part of oneworld).
Finnair, for whom Japan is now a bigger market, in revenue terms, than even its Finland home, has also been increasing its flights to Japan and its code-sharing with JAL. Finnair will up frequencies to Nagoya and Osaka from 27 March for the second time in six months, to offer daily departures from each to its Helsinki hub, in addition to its double-dailies to and from Tokyo Narita. JL added its code to flights by the Nordic carrier between its Helsinki hub and six more destinations in Europe – Berlin, Brussels, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Munich and Warsaw – a few months ago and in addition to their established code-share services to other cities in Scandinavia as well as Amsterdam and Frankfurt.
Co-location at key airports smooths connections between JAL and oneworld partners
At Tokyo Haneda, where JAL offers the biggest domestic operation at Japan’s biggest domestic airport, it and its on-line oneworld partners located together in the airport’s new international terminal when it opened in October. American’s customers will have access to Japan Airlines lounges at Haneda.
With JAL’s domestic flights using Haneda’s Terminal 1, which is the closest of the airport’s existing terminals to the new international facility, it also means the oneworld is able to offer the fastest international-to-domestic connections at the gateway.
Also in October, British Airways moved its operations at Tokyo Narita into Terminal 2, alongside those of JAL and all the other oneworld on-line carriers, completing the alliance’s biggest airport co-location project yet in Asia and making transfers between BA and JAL and the other oneworld partner airlines there even more simple.
Today, American and Japan Airlines announced plans to co-locate at American’s Terminal 3 at Chicago O’Hare, making travel more convenient for many of the two airlines‘ customers by increasing the number of potential connections, reducing connection times, and making travel more convenient overall.
JAL’s increased alliance activity expected to drive more revenue
JAL’s changed focus and increased participation in oneworld will enable it to maximise its revenue and value it derives from the alliance.
JAL’s change in approach and the increased activity has, for the first time, resulted in the designation of Tokyo as a oneworld key target market – one of a few dozen localities worldwide where its member airlines work more closely together, and with more central alliance support, to achieve greater impact in the market collectively than any of them could individually.
In line with this, it appointed JAL’s former oneworld Project Director Akira Mori as the alliance’s first Regional Market Development Manager for Asia to lead its commercial activities throughout the region.
This included the launch of the alliance’s first advertising campaign in Japan, which has seen, besides the more traditional print, on-line and poster adverts, the coaches that connect Tokyo Narita and Haneda with points downtown decorated in a special oneworld livery.
Late last year, the alliance also introduced a Japanese language version of its popular on-line booking tool for its market-leading oneworld Explorer round-the-world fares.
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, Mexicana, Qantas, Royal Jordanian and S7 Airlines, and around 20 affiliates including American Eagle, Dragonair, LAN Argentina, LAN Ecuador and LAN Peru. airberlin and India’s Kingfisher Airlines are both members elect.
Between them, these airlines:
- Serve almost 900 airports in nearly 150 countries, with some 9,500 daily departures.
- Offer more than 550 airport lounges for premium customers.
- Carry 340 million passengers a year.
- Operate a combined fleet of almost 2,500 aircraft.
- Generate around US$90 billion annual revenues in total.
oneworld 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 also offers more alliance fares than any of its competitors.
oneworld was named the Best Airline Alliance by Global Traveler in its GT Tested Reader Survey 2010 Awards, World’s Best Alliance in the 2010 World Airline Awards and the World’s Leading Airline Alliance in the 2010 World Travel Awards, retaining that title for the eighth year running.
Picture: Edgar Delmont
