JAL Becomes a Full Member of the oneworld Alliance.

Tokyo, Japan, Apr 2, 2007 - (JCN Newswire) - oneworld(R) today completed the biggest expansion in its history with Japan Airlines together with Malev Hungarian Airlines and Royal Jordanian all now offering the alliance's services and benefits as full members.

Seven other airlines have joined at the same time as affiliate members - JAL associates JALways, Japan Asia Airways, JAL Express, J-AIR and Japan Transocean Air as well as LAN Argentina and LAN Ecuador.

Their addition has expanded oneworld substantially, to:

- Almost 700 airports, around a hundred more than now.

- Nearly 150 countries.

- 9,000 daily departures, a thousand more than today.

- Around 315 million passengers, 65 million more than at present.

- 265,000 employees.

- Almost 2,500 aircraft.

- Nearly US$90 billion annual revenues, up by a third.

JAL was the largest airline in the world not aligned to a multilateral global alliance until it lined up to join oneworld. It is the biggest carrier in the Asia-Pacific region and one of the top airlines in the world on any count. On virtually every measure, it becomes one of the biggest three airlines in oneworld.

With its five oneworld affiliates, it serves almost 90 destinations in 24 countries. It has added nearly 50 airports to the alliance network - almost 40 of them in Japan, and the rest in China and elsewhere in Asia. It has brought one new territory onto the oneworld map, in Guam.

Members of the JAL Mileage Bank (JMB) can now earn and redeem mileage awards on all other oneworld carriers. JAL Global Club Premier, JMB Diamond and Sapphire cardholders can also now gain access to the 400 airport lounges worldwide offered by the alliance's airlines.

Frequent flyer programme members of the established oneworld airlines - American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, Finnair, Iberia, LAN Airlines and Qantas - can now earn and redeem awards and receive all other oneworld benefits on JAL.

JAL's network is also now covered by oneworld's extensive range of alliance fares and sales products.

oneworld has been the only global airline alliance with the customer convenience of interline e-ticketing between all its partners for two years already, enabling passengers to transfer between its airlines' flights without the need for traditional paper tickets.

The same convenience is extended across JAL as it boards the grouping, as part of a comprehensive programme which has seen all its internal processes and procedures brought into line with the alliance's requirements.

Tens of thousands of employees from the airline have participated in a special training programme to ensure it can deliver the alliance's services and benefits from Day One, and its IT systems linked to those at the other oneworld airlines.

Signage at the 700 airports served by the alliance's member airlines and at hundreds of sales outlets worldwide will be changed from today to reflect oneworld's new membership line-up.

JAL Group Chief Executive Haruka Nishimatsu said: "Becoming part of oneworld today represents an historic milestone for Japan Airlines - and a huge opportunity for JAL. It means we can offer our customers more choice, convenience, and better value - quality air travel options and benefits beyond the reach of any individual airline or bilateral partnership, across all the alliance's world-class member airlines and their affiliates. I am confident that oneworld will equally benefit from having us in its team."

oneworld Managing Partner John McCulloch said: "Today is a truly historic day for the oneworld alliance, for our new member airlines and for our customers worldwide. Our recruits have enabled oneworld to broaden its coverage in three of the world's fastest growing regions for air travel. We have added the quality and strength of more great brands to the world's leading airline alliance, and further increased the value, choice and range that we offer our oneworld customers."

Dragonair, named China's best airline for the past five years by the SkyTrax airline quality organisation and serving more destinations in Mainland China then any other airline based outside the mainland, will join oneworld as an affiliate member later this year.

Also from today, Aer Lingus has withdrawn from oneworld, with its low-fare, point-to-point strategy no longer in line with the alliance's main focus on multi-sector, premium, frequent, international travellers.

About oneworld

oneworld enables its member airlines 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 the only alliance whose members collectively achieved a profit in their latest full financial years, and was voted the World's Leading Airline Alliance for the fourth year running in the 2006 World Travel Awards, based on votes cast by some 170,000 travel professionals, including more than 110,000 travel agents in 200 countries.

About Japan Airlines Corporation

The JAL Group (TSE: 9205) is Japan's leading air transportation group, resulting from the integration of Japan Airlines and Japan Air System on October 2, 2002. On April 1, 2004 the Group was reorganized under a single "JAL/ Japan Airlines" brand, with Japan Airlines Domestic handling domestic passenger operations and Japan Airlines International responsible for international passenger and cargo operations. JAL International and JAL Domestic were integrated into one company in October 2006, now known as JAL International. Coordinating the group is Japan Airlines Corporation, a holding company. For more information, please visit www.jal.com.

Source: Japan Airlines Corporation

Contact:

Stephen Pearlman
Public Relations Manager
Japan Airlines Corporation
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Website: www.jal.com/en/corporate/

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