Japan Airlines (JAL) will become part of oneworld^tm in early 2007, after accepting today a formal letter of invitation to join the world's leading quality global airline alliance.

JAL is the biggest carrier in the Asia-Pacific region in terms of both revenue and passengers carried, and the largest carrier yet to link to any of the global alliance. Using virtually all measures, it will be in the alliance's biggest three, alongside American Airlines and British Airways.

Besides the mainline Japan Airlines, five other members of the JAL Group will also join oneworld as affiliates - JALways, Japan Asia Airways, JAL Express, J-Air and Japan Transocean Air.

The letter of invitation was signed today at a meeting of the oneworld Governing Board in Paris ahead of today's IATA World Air Transport Summit in the French capital.

It came just six months after JAL indicated it wanted to board the grouping, and followed a memorandum of understanding completed in February as the first step in this process.

All parties have committed to bring the new recruit on board oneworld as soon as possible. American Airlines is supporting JAL through these tasks, as its prime oneworld sponsor, assisted by Cathay Pacific.

JAL and its affiliates will add 47 destinations to the oneworld map. With Malév and Royal Jordanian bringing another 25 airports on-line to the alliance, the new recruits will expand its network to almost 700 destinations in approaching 150 countries.

They will increase oneworld's passenger capacity by a fifth, taking its share of the total global air transport industry to almost 20 per cent. The expanded alliance will offer more than 9,200 daily departures (almost 15 per cent more than today), with their combined fleet of some 2,500 aircraft carrying 320 million passengers a year. The new recruits will extend the grouping's combined annual revenues by a third, to US$86 billion.

Speaking on behalf of his oneworld counterparts, American Airlines Chairman and Chief Executive Gerard Arpey said: "Adding Japan Airlines, together with Malév and Royal Jordanian, is one of the most significant developments since oneworld's launch seven years ago.

"We are thrilled to be welcoming them on board. oneworld and all its member airlines have committed to do whatever is necessary to complete their boarding process as smoothly and speedily as possible, so that they can offer the full range of oneworld services and benefits from the day they join."

Japan Airlines Chief Executive Designate Haruka Nishimatsu said: "Japan Airlines and oneworld have been able to conclude all necessary membership agreements extremely speedily, which signals excellent working relationships going forward.

"We are determined to maintain this pace and build on this level of co-operation to enable JAL to join oneworld as soon as possible, to the benefit of our customers, shareholders and employees. We know we will be in very good company. oneworld is without doubt the leading quality alliance."

Attending yesterday's signing ceremony were:

• Iberia Chairman and Chief Executive Fernando Conte, current chairman of the oneworld Governing Board
• American Airlines Chairman and Chief Executive Gerard Arpey
• British Airways Chief Executive Willie Walsh
• Qantas Chief Executive Officer Geoff Dixon
• Cathay Pacific Chief Executive Philip Chen
• LAN Chief Executive Enrique Cueto
• Finnair Chief Executive Jukka Hienonen
• Aer Lingus Chief Executive Dermot Manion
• Japan Airlines Group Chief Executive designate Haruka Nishimatsu
• Malév Chief Executive János Gönci
• Royal Jordanian Chief Executive and Deputy Chairman Samer Majali
• oneworld Managing Partner John McCulloch

About Japan Airlines
The JAL Group is Asia's biggest airline group in terms of sales revenues and passengers carried annually.

From its main hubs of Tokyo (Narita and Haneda) and Osaka (Kansai and Itami), Japan Airlines including code shares serves 213 destinations in 35 countries and territories, in Asia, Australasia, Europe and the Americas, including oneworld hubs Chicago O'Hare, Hong Kong, London Heathrow, Los Angeles, New York JFK, Singapore and Sydney.

With just more than 23,000 staff in the air transport sector, JAL mainline and the five affiliates joining oneworld alongside it operate a combined fleet of 254 aircraft, which last year carried almost 56 million passengers.

With the IATA two-letter code of JL, the mainline airline and its oneworld candidate affiliatesoperate some 946 departures a day.

Founded in 1951, it is a public company with its shares listed on the Tokyo stock exchange.

It currently has extensive bilateral agreements with oneworld partners American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Iberia, LAN and Qantas - and, since it indicated its wish to join oneworld, with Finnair also.

oneworld's five current airlines operate some 250 flights a week to and from Tokyo Narita:

• American Airlines operates 35 departures a week to the USA - two a day to Dallas/Fort Worth and dailies to Chicago O'Hare, Los Angeles and New York JFK.
• Cathay Pacific offers 35 flights a week to Hong Kong, seven via Taipei.
• Qantas operates 31 departures a week to Australia - double dailies to Cairns, dailies to Sydney and Melbourne and three a week to Perth.
• Finnair operates two flights a week to Helsinki.
• British Airways, which will remain in Tokyo Narita Terminal 1 for now, serves London Heathrow twice daily.