Malaysian onboard OneWorld

Malaysia Airlines is to join oneworld®, adding one of aviation's most frequent award winners to the world's leading quality airline alliance. Malaysia Airlines was unanimously elected a oneworld member designate by the Chief Executives of the alliance's member airlines, at a meeting on the sidelines of IATA's 2011 World Air Transport Summit, which opens in Singapore today. A formal alliance membership agreement will be completed soon.

Malaysia Airlines is expected to start flying as part of oneworld late next year. As it prepares for its alliance membership, Malaysia Airlines intends to develop bilateral links with a number of oneworld's established partners, who include some of the biggest and best names in the airline industry. It already codeshares with oneworld partners Cathay Pacific and Royal Jordanian. When it becomes part of oneworld, its customers will gain access to the alliance's truly global network. It will expand oneworld's global coverage to almost 950 destinations in 150 countries, served by a combined fleet of more than 2,600 aircraft operating some 10,000 flights a day and carrying 358 million passengers a year.

Three established oneworld member airlines currently serve Malaysia, with Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines and Royal Jordanian flying to Kuala Lumpur, and Cathay Pacific also to Penang and, through its Dragonair affiliate, Kota Kinabalu. Opportunities for expanding the alliance's coverage of the country will be explored as Malaysia Airlines prepares to join. When it becomes part of oneworld, members of Malaysia Airlines Enrich frequent flyer program will be able to earn and redeem rewards on any of oneworld's 14 other top-class carriers, with top tier members able to use any of the group's 550 plus airport lounges, and its network will be covered by oneworld's range of alliance fares.

At the same time, frequent flyer cardholders of oneworld's established airlines will be able to earn and redeem rewards when flying on Malaysia Airlines. Qantas will serve a s sponsor of Malaysia Airlines entry into oneworld.Malaysia Airlines Chairman Tan Sri Dr Mohd Munir Abdul Majid said: "The Board of Malaysia Airlines had targeted entry into an alliance this year. I am glad we are at the stage where the initiation with oneworld is formalized."

Malaysia Airlines Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Tengku Azmil Aziz said: "With the world airline industry increasingly focused on alliances, we have carried out careful analysis of the options now available to Malaysia Airlines. The time is clearly right for our company to join one of the global airline groups, and oneworld is clearly the best option for us. As a company highly focused on quality service, we are immensely proud to have been invited to join the highest quality alliance with the best airline partners offering a global network that best complements our own. We look forward to completing all joining requirements as soon as possible."

American Airlines Chairman and Chief Executive Gerard Arpey, Chairman of the oneworld Governing Board, said: "Today's agreement with Malaysia Airlines represents another significant milestone in our effort to establish oneworld firmly as the world's premier airline alliance with members unmatched in brand and service quality. Not only will Malaysia Airlines bolster oneworld's presence in Asia, in North America it will also further strengthen our alliance's position at Los Angeles, where American Airlines has significantly expanded with new international and domestic flights as well as enhanced facilities. We look forward to welcoming Malaysia Airlines to oneworld."

oneworld CEO Bruce Ashby said: "oneworld already features four of the best airlines in Asia-Pacific, including member elect Kingfisher Airlines. Adding another leading Asian carrier, in Malaysia Airlines, will greatly enhance oneworld's offering throughout the world's fast growing region for air travel demand." Qantas Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce said: "Malaysia Airlines is an ideal candidate for oneworld, with its world-class reputation for customer service mirroring oneworld's own focus. Its Kuala Lumpur home will provide our customers with another of the world's best airports, geographically well placed between our existing hubs. Qantas is delighted to be serving as its sponsor in joining oneworld."

Kingfisher Airlines optimistic about growth

India's Kingfisher Airlines is looking to lease both wide-body and narrow-body aircraft to meet an unanticipated surge in demand as the domestic economy recovers more quickly than expected, the company's chairman, Vijay Mallya, said on Monday. Mallya also told reporters on the sidelines of the International Air Transport Association's annual meeting in Singapore that the company had revived a plan to sell Global Depository Receipts, taking higher oil prices into calculation. Asked if Kingfisher's current capacity was enough to cater to the projected increase in demand, he said: "Not quite, that is why we are looking for leased capacity.

"Kingfisher at one time had several aircraft that were on order from Airbus for delivery in 2010 and 2011. During the 2008-2009 crisis, I actually postponed the delivery of those aircraft to 2012 and 2013," Mallya said. "So right now we are looking for capacity, but our own new deliveries will start in about 18 months." He said he was looking to lease both narrow-body and wide-body aircraft. "We have been experiencing for the last six months unprecedented load factors, which I have never seen in the last six years," Mallya said. "We are running at mid to high 80 percent on every flight, which is extremely healthy."

According to its website, Kingfisher has 66 aircraft, mostly Airbus jets and ATR turbo-prop variants. It has more than 125 planes on order. Loss-making Kingfisher, India's second-largest airline by market share, has restructured its debt by converting almost INR12 billion rupees (USD$268 million) of loans into equity. Its current debt stands at about INR60 billion rupees. Last month, it reported a net loss of INR10.27 billion rupees in the fiscal year ending March 31, versus a loss of INR16.47 billion rupees the year before. But it had positive EBITDA amounting to INR1.4 billion rupees, the company says. "We reported significantly improved numbers and EBITDA profit for the first time. This is a sign of things to come," Mallya said.

He said the company had also revived a proposal to sell GDRs of USD$250 million - USD$350 million, but gave few details. "We had an excellent roadshow for our GDR in January and early February this year and we presented a compelling business plan." He said the plan assumed crude oil at USD$90 per barrel. "The minute crude oil prices started going up to USD$120 plus per barrel, prospective investors asked us to rework our business plans, which we did."

The flamboyant Mallya, who controls the United Breweries Group, owns a Grand Prix motor racing team and a team in India's cricket league, said Kingfisher's growth should be enhanced as it joins the oneworld airline alliance, which also includes Cathay Pacific, British Airways and Qantas. "The opportunities to leverage this alliance are huge," he said, adding that Kingfisher would become a fully operational member by 2012. "We see this as being a contributor of about 5-6 percent of enhanced revenue to us."

He said Kingfisher was continuing to lobby the government to allow foreign airlines to take stakes in Indian carriers. "Airlines in India must raise capital and the opportunity to raise capital from foreign airlines must not be excluded and that's why we will continue to request the government of India to reconsider its foreign direct investment policy." Kingfisher flies to eight international destinations and to more than 50 towns and cities in India. Its fleet of turboprop aircraft will help it to respond to the pattern of wealth creation in India, Mallya added. "There is a lot of wealth in tier-2 and tier-3 cities that is being created," he said. "It is no longer a situation where wealth in India is restricted to the big metro cities, so it offers a huge amount of opportunity. "Kingfisher is well positioned because it has a large number of ATR aircraft which are ideal to service the emerging demand in tier-2 and tier-3 cities," he said.

Kingfisher on board oneworld

India's only five star Airliner Kingfisher is now officially a part of oneworld alliance. After been invited by the one world group and also asked to take the clearance from the Director General of Civil Aviation in India, the airliner has managed to join hands with oneworld. The DGCA has given the airliner a go ahead with this process. The chairman of Kingfisher airlines Mr. Vijay Mallya had expressed that he was very happy to be invited to join hands with oneworld and to be apart of this means a lot to kingfisher fliers, now the airliner will have 800 new destination across 150 countries.
With the new international terminal to be inaugurated in a short span of time from now at New Delhi, the one world group operating to the Indian capital can now share the Kingfisher's premium lounge to their premier flier's as well. The code sharing between the member airlines of oneworld is also under way.