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Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific Airways has established a new frequent flier programme called Asia Miles, for all its fare classes, with links to the oneworld alliance, Swissair and Japan Airlines (JAL).

 Cathay and JAL also said they were looking at code-sharing on routes between Hong Kong and regional cities in Japan, giving passengers a greater number of flights to choose from.

 The code-sharing could be introduced as early as the first half of next year, according to Cathay.

 Asia Miles will replace Cathay's Passages programme - jointly run with Singapore Airlines and Malaysian Airline System - which applied only to business and first-class travel.

 The fall in volumes of regional air travel due to the economic turmoil has meant airlines have been looking to get as many passengers on board as they can, regardless of the class of ticket they buy.

 Peter Buecking, Cathay director of sales and marketing, said: 'We designed Air Miles to be so extensive in scope that customers would never need to join another programme.'  A Cathay spokesman said the code-sharing on routes between Hong Kong and Japan was still under discussion.

 Philip Chen, Cathay's chief operating officer, said: 'We are pleased to be able to work with Japan Airlines to bring a range of benefits to our passengers.'  'Japan is one of our most important markets, and we believe this partnership will go a long way to strengthen our business there over the long term,' he said.

 JAL senior managing director Shinzo Suto said: 'Japan Airlines and Cathay Pacific are both committed to delivering high-quality customer service so an agreement between the two is a natural step.'  The question is whether this is also the first step towards JAL eventually joining the oneworld alliance - forged last month by British Airways, American Airlines, Canadian Airlines, Qantas Airways and Cathay - as a rival to the United Airlines-led Star Alliance.

 JAL was reportedly considering membership, although analysts said it was worried that it could lose exclusivity on lucrative Japanese international routes to its partners.

 JAL president Isao Kaneko was reported yesterday as saying that the airline - which has separate individual marketing agreements with the other oneworld members - would stick to its 'bilateral commercial relationships'.

 Cathay says it hopes to sign up 250,000 participants to the programme in the first year.



Cathay offers new air miles deal, discusses code-sharing with JAL