OREANDA-NEWS. August 05, 2009. Domestic networks in India and Russia are to be made available through Global Explorer, the round-the-world fare offered by members of the oneworld alliance and selected other airlines, with Kingfisher Airlines and oneworld member elect S7 Airlines joining the participating carriers, reported the press-centre of S7 Airlines.

From then, Global Explorer will feature:

- Kingfisher Airlines’ domestic services, adding a further 62 destinations throughout India to the five in gateways in the country already covered by the fare. This is the first time any round-the-world air fare has featured an Indian domestic network.

- S7 Airlines’ Russian domestic and international schedules, extending Global Explorer to cover eight new countries – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan – and 55 new destinations, including 36 additional gateways in Russia.

Global Explorer already includes a number of airlines with no other oneworld links – Aer Lingus, Air Pacific, Alaska Airlines and its Horizon Airlines sister, and Gulf Air. Flights carrying the Qantas code but operated by Air Tahiti Nui, Jetstar, South African Airways and Vietnam Airlines are included too.

The fare also covers all routes offered by oneworld’s existing member airlines - American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN, Malev Hungarian Airlines, Qantas and Royal Jordanian and some 20 affiliated carriers, including LAN Argentina, LAN Ecuador, LAN Peru, China’s Dragonair and South Africa’s Comair. Mexicana and its affiliate MexicanaClick also participate, ahead of joining oneworld later in 2009.

With the addition of Kingfisher Airlines and S7 Airlines from Monday, Global Explorer now covers flights serving a total of more than 850 destinations in some 150 countries offered by more than 20 airlines and some 20 affiliates.

No other round-the-world fare offers more extensive coverage of North America, South America, Australasia or, now, India, with oneworld the only alliance featuring member airlines based in South America, Australia or Asia’s Middle East, and Kingfisher now the only Indian airline participating in a fare like Global Explorer.

Global Explorer offers simple, flexible, and great value round-the-world travel for trips of up to one year long. Four versions are available. For details, see below.

It is one of two round-the-world fares offered by oneworld. Its other round-the-world fare is oneworld Explorer. This includes travel on the alliance’s existing member airlines and affiliates only. Uniquely, prices are based on the number of continents visited, rather than on the distance flown. It is the only round-the-world fare that can be bought on-line. oneworld offers a wider range of alliance fares than any of its competitors. For those who don’t want to fly all around the world, these include Circle fares for traveling through several continents without actually circumnavigating the globe and Visit passes for each continent. S7 will participate in all these other fares when it becomes a fully-fledged part of oneworld next year.

Four versions of Global Explorer are available. Tiers 1, 2 and 4 are for travel only in Economy Class, but Tier 3 can be used also in First or Business. Not all tiers are available from all countries.