The oneworld travel alliance is to welcome three new major airlines at the beginning of April.
Japan Airlines (JAL), Royal Jordanian Airlines and Malev Hungarian Airlines will all begin offering oneworld services and benefits from April 1.
Also joining the alliance on the same day will be JAL Group subsidiaries JALways, Japan Asia Airways, JAL Express, J-AIR and Japan Transocean Air, making it the single biggest expansion of oneworld since its initial launch.
Oneworld, which also has British Airways and Aer Lingus as members, enables airlines to offer more benefits to passengers than they would be able to on their own. These include more opportunities to earn frequent flyer miles, greater access to airport lounges and a broader route network.
With the new additions, the oneworld network will comprise around 700 airports in almost 150 countries, with 9,000 daily departures.
JAL will bring 50 new destinations to the club, including a new territory in the form of Guam. Malev will add a link to Macedonia and Royal Jordanian will bring in connections to Iraq and Yemen.
Frequent flyers will be able to take advantage of JAL’s Mileage Bank loyalty scheme, as well as Malev’s Duna Club and Royal Jordanian’s Royal Plus.
Last year, oneworld revamped its website to make it easier for passengers to plan round-the-world trips. A new interactive map details every destination in the network.
