SriLankan Airlines to join oneworld alliance on May 1

April 9, 2014

TOKYO - SriLankan Airlines will become a full member of oneworld from Thursday May 1 - the first carrier from the Indian subcontinent to become part of any global airline alliance. The national airline of Sri Lanka has received clearance to board oneworld after successfully completing a review of its readiness conducted by Cathay Pacific Airways, which is sponsoring its entry into the alliance.

SriLankan will bring two new destinations into the oneworld network - Sri Lanka's new Hambantota International and India's Tiruchirapalli. It now operates a fleet of 21 aircraft - including seven Airbus A320s, five A330-200s and six A340-300s, and last year handled 4.7 million passengers through its Colombo base
The 100,000 members of SriLankan's FlySmiLes loyalty programme will, in effect, have their frequent flyer privileges extended to whenever they fly with any oneworld member airline. FlySmiLes Platinum cardholders will have Emerald status in the oneworld programme.  FlySmiLes Gold will be equivalent to oneworld Sapphire and FlySmiLes Classic will be oneworld Ruby. www.srilankan.com (ATI).