Oneworld to launch common online booking

Istanbul: Oneworld, the airline alliance with members based in South America, Australia and and the Middle East, said it will launch its online booking facility by the end of this year.

Initially, the facility will be offered on Oneworld Explorer, the multi-airline ticket booking facility. This will enable passengers to use the flights of any of Oneworld's ten member airlines and 20 affiliates, who serve 700 destinations in 150 countries.

The new system lets a customer verify flight availability displaying only flights that have seats available for the date and route selected.

The system will automatically validate that the customer's itinerary meets all rules and conditions and provide an instant price. Unlike other round-the-world fares, Explorer calculates the price based on the number of continents visited (three to six) and not on the mileage flown.

Nicolas Ferri, Oneworld vice-president, commercial, said, "Our new easy-to-use online booking and and payment facility will save customers a huge amount of time, offer them flexibility in planning their trips and also reduce costs for our member airlines."