oneworld Welcomes Japan Airlines' Interest in Joining the Alliance

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- oneworld(SM), the world's leading quality global airline alliance, said today that it warmly welcomes today's announcement by Japan Airlines (JAL) that it intends to seek membership in the alliance.

"Japan Airlines would be an ideal fit with oneworld, as we have said often in the past," said oneworld Managing Partner John McCulloch. "It is a high class carrier, with an excellent reputation for its customer service and management, and an enviable network that complements those of our existing members.

"We are very pleased that it has recognized the value that membership of oneworld offers and look forward to working with Japan Airlines to complete the agreements, procedures and processes that are necessary before we can issue a formal invitation to join."

JAL is the largest carrier in the Asia-Pacific region. By virtually all measures, it would join American Airlines and British Airways as the largest members of the alliance. In terms of group revenues, it would become the largest member of oneworld.

Until today, Japan Airlines was the only one among the 20 biggest international airlines in the world (IATA members) not to have joined or sought membership in one of the three key airline groupings.

American Airlines will be JAL's primary oneworld sponsor, supporting JAL through the various tasks to be completed before it can join the alliance. Cathay Pacific will assist American in that role.

"Japan Airlines' interest in joining oneworld is a very significant development. Asia is a robust market for air travel and the addition of JAL means that oneworld customers will enjoy even more convenient access to and from that important area of the world," said American's Chairman and CEO, Gerard Arpey, who also noted that American has long had a strong bilateral relationship with JAL. "Along with a broader route network, oneworld customers will also have more services and benefits available to them than ever before. We are excited to sponsor their membership in the alliance, and look forward to deepening our association with them through oneworld."

Today's announcement follows announcements that Royal Jordanian Airlines and Hungary's Malev Airlines also plan to join oneworld.

JAL would expand oneworld's existing network by approximately 10 percent, adding 68 new destinations -- 56 of them in Japan and five in China. It would also add one territory -- Guam. oneworld's existing members currently serve 134 countries and 599 destinations. With JAL, Royal Jordanian and Malev, the oneworld network would extend to 686 destinations in 140 countries and territories.

In addition to its relationship with American, JAL currently has extensive bilateral agreements with oneworld partners British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Iberia, LAN and Qantas.

Five of oneworld's existing partners operate to and from Japan -- American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair and Qantas -- carrying some four million passengers last year on a combined schedule of almost 200 round trips a week. These link Tokyo Narita, Osaka Kansai, Nagoya Centrair, Fukuoka and Sapporo Chitose with direct flights to 13 destinations, including oneworld hubs at Chicago O'Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, New York JFK, London Heathrow, Helsinki, Hong Kong, Melbourne and Sydney.

Japan Airlines serves oneworld hubs Chicago O'Hare, Los Angeles, New York JFK, London Heathrow, Hong Kong, Singapore and Sydney.

About oneworld

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 12 affiliates. Hungary's Malev Airlines signed a memorandum of understanding in May 2005 as its first step toward joining the alliance. Royal Jordanian Airlines is a member-elect and expects to start offering alliance services and benefits around the turn of 2006-07.

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 whole alliance network, and access to more airport lounges.

  Together, its existing airlines:
   *  Carried more than 240 million passengers in 2004.
   *  Provide top frequent flyers and premium passengers with some 400
      airport lounges worldwide.
   *  Operate more than 8,000 departures a day -- an average of a departure
      or arrival somewhere around the world every five seconds around the
      clock -- on a fleet of some 2,000 aircraft.
   *  Earned almost $60 billion in revenues in total in 2004, with oneworld
      activities generating one in every $30 earned by its member airlines
      from passenger services.

It offers more alliance fare and sales products than any of its competitors, earning almost $600 million for its member airlines in 2004, with the seven million passengers transferring between oneworld members generating revenues totalling $1.6 billion in the year.

It is the only global alliance to enable customers to transfer between flights by all its member airlines using electronic tickets.

oneworld has won more top international awards for airline alliances than both its competitors combined -- voted the World's Best Airline Alliance for the second year running by readers of Business Traveller magazine in its 2005 poll, and named the World's Leading Airline Alliance for the second year running in the 2004 World Travel Awards, based on votes cast by travel professionals from 80,000 agencies in more than 200 countries.

About Japan Airlines

Japan Airlines (IATA two-letter code "JL") serves 206 destinations in 34 countries and territories in Asia, Australasia, Europe and the Americas. With nearly 24,000 staff in the air transport sector, it operates a fleet of 284 aircraft that carried nearly 60 million passengers in 2004. The airline operates some 1,140 departures a day, with main hubs in Tokyo (Narita and Haneda) and Osaka (Kansai and Itami). It reported net profits of $281 million in 2004, on revenues of $20 billion. Founded in 1951, it is a public company with its shares listed on the Tokyo stock exchange.

* For JAL's media release today in English, see http://www.jal.com/en/press/ . For a version in Japanese, see http://www.jal.com/ja/press/ .