Amidst all the trouble, passengers flying on Kingfisher Airlines have something to cheer about. The airline is joining the global ‘Oneworld' alliance from February 10, 2012. It will be the first carrier from the Indian sub continent to join any global airline alliance.

With such an alliance, passengers of Kingfisher's King Club frequent flyer programme will be able to earn and redeem mileage awards on all One World partners such as American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, Fin Air, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN Airlines, Malév Hungarian Airlines, Qantas, Royal Jordanian, S7Airlines and almost 20 affiliated airlines and vice versa.

King Club Platinum cardholders will have Oneworld emerald status while King Club Gold members will enjoy Oneworld Sapphire status. Such a status will give access to more than 550 airport lounges worldwide offered by the alliance's airlines. King Club Silver cardholders will have Oneworld Ruby status. All the members will be sent new cards soon.

The Kingfisher Airlines' Chairman, Mr Vijay Mallya, hoped that such an alliance will strengthen the airline financially, through revenues from passengers transferring to Kingfisher's network from Oneworld partners and the cost reduction opportunities the alliance offers.

The Oneworld CEO, Mr Bruce Ashby, said, “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.”

Earlier this year, Air India's entry into the rival Star Alliance was put on hold. Star Alliance had said that Air India had not met the minimum joining condition that was contractually agreed to in December 2007.

>Shishir.s@thehindu.co.in

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