Tomorrow marks the 10th anniversary of Finnair's joining of the oneworld airline alliance. Finnair became a oneworld member in September 1999, the year that the alliance was founded. Alliance membership has grown from the five founder companies to the current 10 members and their nearly 20 subsidiary airlines. Later this year, the Mexican airline Mexicana will join the alliance, to be followed next year by the Russian airline S7 Airlines. “Membership of the oneworld alliance has brought huge advantages to Finnair customers, because it means that Finnair is able to offer a nearly 700 destination route and service network as well as frequent-flyer benefits on all oneworld airline flights,” says Outi Koponen, who manages Finnair's oneworld relations. oneworld membership brings significant additional passenger numbers to Finnair's Asia route network by enabling onward connections on the flights of oneworld's Asian members, the Australian airline Qantas, Japan Airlines and the Hong Kong airline Cathay Pacific. Annually nearly 30 per cent of passengers on Finnair's Southeast Asia flights continue on oneworld airline flights to various Asian destinations. Since June it has been possible to book the flights of all oneworld airlines on Finnair's website www.finnair.fi. “The number of city pairs available on the booking engine expanded to 160,000,” explains Koponen. At the address www.oneworld.com, moreover, customers can book and purchase round-the-world tickets for routings that include more than one member airline. oneworld introduced the booking engine in December 2008, the first airline alliance to do so. oneworld is the only alliance to have a full Australian network, a member airline in South America and a member airline in the Middle East. The comprehensive alliance helps promote efficient travel and the use of the most direct routes possible, thereby reducing the emissions generated. For customers, membership of the alliance is also a guarantee of quality. The oneworld alliance has strict requirements which members must fulfil, and they are continually monitored. oneworld focuses, for example, on members' check-in arrangements, lounges, aircraft departures, cabin staff, meals, seat comfort, punctuality, cabin entertainment, aircraft cleanliness and baggage handling. In this way it is safeguards the alliance's reputation and is able to offer good service to quality-conscious customers. Furthermore, all airlines belonging to oneworld have environmental targets. It's ten years since the oneworld alliance was founded and also since Finnair became a member. To celebrate, the alliance is offering ten per cent discounts for ten weeks up to November 3, 2009. The special offers are valid on oneworld round-the-world, visit and circle alliance products. oneworld airlines carried 330 million passengers last year. The oneworld alliance members are currently American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN, Malév Hungarian Airlines, Qantas and Royal Jordanian as well as around 20 subsidiaries, including American Eagle, Dragonair, LAN Argentina, LAN Ecuador and LAN Peru. Mexicana will join the alliance during 2009 and S7 Airlines in 2010. Finnair Plc Communications 31.8.2009 Finnair blogs: http://blogs.finnair.com Photobank: www.finnair.com/gallery Finnair Group website: www.finnairgroup.com via.Helsinki: www.viahelsinki.com http://feel.finnair.com