It looks like an Indian Airline is actually going to formally join an alliance. And as you can all guess from the title, it’s not Air India, but KingFisher who will be first to formally join an alliance.
OneWorld state that Kingfisher Airlines is to formally join the the alliance on February 10, 2012.
Members of Kingfisher’s King Club frequent flyers club will be able to earn and spend miles on OneWorld Carriers at this point (as OneWorld members of other airlines will be able to spend at that point).
For those seeking Lounge access/loyalty recognition, Kingfisher “Gold” will equate to OneWorld Sapphire, whilst Platinum members will equate to OneWorld Emerald status.
Kingfisher of late is having a poor time of it – failing to reach a profit since its inception in 2005, and has been route culling with 40 routes stood down. It has also folded its Kingfisher Red subsidiary choosing to focus on higher yielding fares. In addition, reports indicate they are struggling to pay maintenance costs, and having to ground 15 of it’s aircraft recently.
Certainly, it’s unwelcome news as Kingfisher races to join the OneWorld Alliance.
[…] Kingfisher and global alliance oneworld have set a date for the Indian carrier to join the alliance. But there still appear to be many hurdles that must be surmounted for that to actually happen. Assuming everything goes as planned the join date is February 10, 2012. […]