Russia’s S7 Airlines to Join Oneworld Alliance

After being unanimously elected on board by the grouping’s existing 10 member airlines, which include some of the best and biggest names in the industry, S7 will become part of Oneworld, offering the alliance’s full range of services, benefits and fares, during 2010.

As a first step, its network will be added from June 1 to the Global Explorer round-the-world fare offered by all Oneworld member airlines and selected carriers that are not part of the alliance. British Airways will support S7 through its 18-month alliance implementation program, as its Oneworld sponsor.

Its addition to Oneworld will link one of the most extensive networks covering Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States, with Oneworld’s unrivalled global network, as the only alliance including airlines based on every continent.

S7 serves 72 destinations worldwide –38 of them in Russia. It will add 54 cities to the Oneworld map –35 of them in Russia. It will bring eight countries onto the alliance’s network –Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

This will expand Oneworld’s network to nearly 750 destinations in almost 150 countries, served by a combined fleet of 2,300 aircraft operating almost 8,500 flights a day, carrying more than 330 million passengers a year.