oneworld's new fares make travel from Italy easier than ever

oneworld®, the world's leading quality airline alliance, today launches a range of special fares from Italy, as part of a concerted campaign to gain a bigger share of the air travel market from the country.

Three new fares are being made available to customers from Italy from today:

• businessflyer® , offering small and medium-sized enterprises substantial discounts.
• Combinable fares, providing greater flexibility and value.
• Special round-the-world tickets.

businessflyer

Italy is from today the sixth country worldwide where the alliance now offers its businessflyer programme for small and medium-sized enterprises, offering substantial discounts in return for a more regular relationship.

businessflyer enables smaller businesses to benefit from the sort of discounts on air fares that are normally only available to bigger corporate customers with the purchasing power to negotiate special rates.

Customers simply need to register at the alliance's new dedicated Italian website oneworld.com/Italia (or oneworld.com/italy) and can then use these specially discounted tickets to fly from some 20 airports across Italy to more than 220 cities in Europe, North America, South American, Asia and Australasia - all the most popular destinations for Italian businesses - using any of the alliance's carriers.  businessflyer tickets are flexible and tailored for business.

Once they have completed their on-line registration, customers gain access to an exclusive businessflyer website, where they can register the details of their preferred travel agent through which they wish to make bookings, and where they can learn more about the range of businessflyer destinations and special fares offered by each oneworld member.

Customers can choose to travel in Business or Economy Class, or in First Class in some cases, enabling companies to benefit whatever the requirements of their travel policy.

The tickets provide maximum flexibility, so itineraries or dates can be changed until just before departure.  businessflyer fares attract frequent flyer rewards and tier status points, and can be bought through a customer's preferred travel agent.

businessflyer was originally launched in Germany in 2003 and then extended to France, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Belgium, with some 6.000 businesses registered to participate in these five countries.

oneworld is supporting the launch of businessflyer in Italy with a massive direct mail campaign, posting details to thousands of small to medium businesses, organisations and to the travel trade.

Combinable fares

In another key move by the alliance, customers flying from Italy can now mix and match any published fares of any of the alliance's member airlines for trips involving flights by any combination of the carriers.

oneworld is the only alliance to offer this degree of ticketing flexibility between all member airlines - and Italy is one of only three countries worldwide where the alliance is trialling this new level of co-operation.

It means passengers from Italy can fly in one direction on one oneworld airline and return on another alliance member - now using both airlines' most attractive published prices all the way.

oneworld Vice-President Commercial Nicolas Ferri, in Milan today for the launch of this initiative, said: "This is another alliance first for oneworld. It is a classic example of oneworld member airlines working more closely together to provide more choice, value and flexibility for their customers. In most cases, it could mean some substantial savings too - but the key for the consumer is greater flexibility, with more flights to choose from."

Special round-the-world-fares

oneworld already offers a wider choice of great value and flexible alliance fare and sales products than any other airline grouping - for touring one continent or traveling all around the world, whether you are a captain of industry or a student backpacker.

Also today, oneworld launches in Italy special versions of its round-the-world fares. These special oneworld Round-the-World Promo fares offer a selection of the alliance's most popular Economy Class round-the-world itineraries, with discounts of up to 15 per cent off regular prices.

For example, traveling from Rome to Hong Kong via Helsinki with Finnair, then on to San Francisco on Cathay Pacific and then back to Rome via New York on American Airlines would cost EUR1,899 - a EUR250 saving on the regular fare of EUR2,149. See notes below

oneworld's focus on Italy

oneworld from today designates Italy for the first time as one of only six "key target markets" worldwide, as part of the alliance's biggest drive yet to win more share of the Italian air travel market.

This means the alliance and its member airlines will work more closely together in Italy, offering offer individual and corporate customers a greater range of services and benefits and investing more resources to support their collective efforts throughout the country.

Other elements of oneworld's new drive to gain market share from Italy include a sweepstake offering three winners prizes of a million air miles each – enough free travel for 80 Economy Class round-trips to Spain, 12 Business Class return flights to Chicago or five Business Class trips to Australia and back. See notes below and separate news release.

Eight of oneworld's member airlines serve Italy with their own flights - American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, Malév Hungarian Airlines and Royal Jordanian. Together, these airlines serve 14 mainland and island Italian airports - Rome Fuimicino, Milan Linate, Milan Malpensa, Bari, Bologna, Cagliari, Catania, Florence Pisa, Naples, Olbia, Palermo, Turin, Venice and Verona. Genoa will be added as the alliance's 15^th Italian gateway next month.

From Italy, these airlines offer a total of more than a thousand flights a week with direct services to 15 destinations in Europe, the Americas and Asia and the smoothest of connections from there to the near 700 destinations in almost 150 countries served by the alliance worldwide. Last year, they provided approaching ten million seats on flights to or from Italy.

With the alliance's two other member LAN Airlines and Qantas and the grouping's 20 affiliates, including from 1 November China's Dragonair, oneworld serves some 700 destinations in almost 150 countries, carrying more than 320 million passengers a year worldwide on around 9.500 daily departures.

With oneworld the only alliance with any member airline based in the Americas south of Mexico, in the Middle East or in Australia, it offers the world's only truly global network.

oneworld Vice-President Commercial Nicolas Ferri said: "Collectively, oneworld's member airlines offer travellers from Italy the world - and these new fares make it even easier and better value to reach anywhere around the globe from this country."

About oneworld

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. It is also the only alliance to enable passengers to fly throughout its network, on any combination of carriers, using just electronic tickets.

oneworld was voted the World's Leading Airline Alliance for the fourth year running in the latest World Travel Awards, based on votes cast by some 170.000 travel professionals, including more than 110.000 travel agents in 200 countries.

It is also the alliance whose members collectively have the best financial track record.

Notes

All fares quoted include all taxes and fees, and are calculated on the basis of travel departing 25 September.

All frequent flyer mileage equivalents are based on American Airlines' AAdvantage scheme redemption rates.