Japan Airlines and British Airways announce start of joint business

Japan Airlines (JAL) and British Airways will begin a joint business agreement with the two airlines sharing revenue on applicable flights between Europe and Japan.

The joint business, which starts on October 1, 2012, will benefit customers by providing better links between Japan and Europe, greater choice of flights to more destinations, enhanced frequent flyer benefits and the potential to launch new routes.

JAL and British Airways, both members of the oneworld® alliance, have been forging ever closer ties in their evolution to the joint business. Earlier this month, JAL and British Airways began offering codeshare flights between Tokyo (Haneda and Narita) and London (Heathrow). The joint business will now see the two airlines cooperating on all non-stop flights operated by JAL or British Airways between Japan and Europe. This will not only include the 19 weekly services between the UK and Japan, but also JAL’s services to Paris and Frankfurt. This gives customers the flexibility of using a combination of JAL and British Airways flights and aligned fares on their journey to and from Japan and Europe, significantly increasing their options.

JAL and British Airways will also be improving flight transfers for customers through enhancing and expanding the codeshare network beyond their respective hub cities. JAL customers will, be able to book seats to the new codeshare destinations of Belfast, Helsinki, Frankfurt, and Gothenburg while British Airways will extend its reach to more points in Japan by codesharing on JAL flights to Kansai, Okayama, Hiroshima, Izumo, Nagasaki, Kagoshima and Okinawa. Further expansion of codeshare arrangements are expected in the future. The websites of the two airlines will be also updated to enable customers to check in and book online and access the flight information they need, irrespective of which of the two carriers they will be flying on.

Customers participating in JAL and British Airways’ loyalty programs will continue to enjoy reciprocal benefits as customers of oneworld, but top tier members of the respective loyalty schemes will now have more opportunity to earn bonus points on applicable flights on either airline, while JAL Mileage Bank (JMB) members will also get to accrue more mileage now than before when flying with British Airways.

“We are looking forward to creating more customer benefits with this deeper level of cooperation with our long-time partner, British Airways,” said Yoshiharu Ueki, President of Japan Airlines. “Together with the inauguration of JAL’s brand new seats and services between Narita and London from January next year, we hope to offer our customers an even greater travel experience than before.”

Willie Walsh, chief executive of IAG, the parent company of British Airways, said: “We are proud to have served Japan for more than 60 years and are delighted to cement the relationship between British Airways and Japan Airlines. This new venture heralds a bigger and better service for our customers and the promise of greater co-operation in the future.”