Russia's S7 Airlines Joining oneworld

Russia's S7 Airlines expects to join the oneworld alliance next year, raising oneworld's membership to 11.

S7 is Russia's leading airline in domestic traffic. S7 would add 54 cities to the oneworld network, 35 of them in Russia, and bring eight countries into the alliance: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

It will take about 18 months to integrate S7 into the alliance. The Russian carrier's membership sponsor is British Airways.

The alliance members are American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, JAL, LAN, Malev, Qantas and Royal Jordanian.

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