oneworld marks addition of Japan Airlines by linking with
Visit Japan Campaign in drive to boost tourism to Japan

Thursday, 1 March 2007: oneworld®, the world’s leading quality global airline alliance, today announced a series of major initiatives to promote tourism and business travel to Japan to mark the forthcoming addition to the grouping of Japan Airlines.

JAL will join oneworld on 1 April, with five of its associated airlines boarding alongside it as affiliates - JALways, Japan Asia Airways, JAL Express, J-AIR and Japan Transocean Air. On the same day, Malév Hungarian and Royal Jordanian will start offering oneworld services and benefits too - in the alliance’s biggest expansion since its launch eight years ago.

The drive to encourage more international visitors to fly to Japan was unveiled at a ceremony to welcome JAL to oneworld, held in Tokyo today and attended by the Chief Executives of all the alliance’s existing airlines and new joiners, meeting in JAL’s home base for the first time since it was elected on board the grouping.

The initiatives come under the umbrella of a new one-year exclusive partnership between oneworld and the Visit Japan Campaign, led by Japan’s Ministry for Land, Infrastructure and Transportation and through which the Japanese Government aims to double the number of foreign tourists holidaying in the country - from around 5 million in 2003, when the campaign was originally launched, to 10 million a year by 2010.

It means that this drive is now supported by an airline grouping carrying some 315 million passengers a year on more than 9,000 flights a day from almost 700 destinations in 150 countries worldwide, earning US$85 billion in revenues a year.

All ten airlines in the new oneworld line-up will participate in this programme. This is believed to be the first time every airline in an alliance has been involved in an initiative of this kind anywhere in the world.

Projects in support of the programme will vary by airline, but will include such activities such as special fares for travel to Japan, frequent flyer incentives, promotions through in-flight videos and magazines, mailings to frequent flyers and on websites, sponsorships, participation in trade shows, links with tour operators and facility trips for travel professionals and journalists.

In addition, oneworld today launched a special alliance fare for travellers to the country - with the Yokoso! Visit Japan pass the latest in its family of air passes offering great value flights on any of the grouping’s members within the region in conjunction with international flights there.