Oneworld Member Buttress Flights, Routes in South America, the Caribbean

Oneworld is reinforcing its position with a new member in South America from the end of January. Now, with Brazil’s Varig leaving Star from the end of January, it will be the only airline grouping with any representatives in the Americas south of Mexico, with LAN Airlines, LAN Express and LAN Peru already part of Oneworld and LAN Argentina and LAN Ecuador joining early in 2007.

Eleven more airlines are joining Oneworld this year –Japan Airlines, plus affiliates JALways, Japan Asia Airways, JAL Express, J-Air and Japan Transocean Air, plus Malev Hungarian, Royal Jordanian, Dragonair and the two additional LAN affiliates.

Puerto Madryn has become the alliance’s ninth destination in Argentina, with LAN launching seasonal services to the Patagonian port from now until early March, with an initial two Airbus A319 roundtrips a week to and from its Santiago hub.

British Airways is to resume services to Trinidad and Tobago’s Port of Spain from London Gatwick from March, with three Boeing 777s a week via Barbados. It will be the airline’s tenth destination in the Caribbean.

Port of Spain is already on the Oneworld network, through American Airlines. The move follows the resumption by British Airways of passenger services to Calgary, with an initial five Boeing 777s from London Heathrow since 1 December. Calgary was already on the Oneworld network through American Airlines.

American Airlines and its American Eagle affiliate, which is also part of Oneworld, have announced five new routes for early 2007. American Eagle will connect Miami with the Mexican gateway of Cozumel, beginning in March, with daily ATR72 turboprops.