Kingfisher passes OneWorld safety audit - on target for joining.

As airline alliances are start starting to buddy up together, Kingfisher has successfully passed the first stages of membership - a safety audit, the approval approval from India's Ministry of Civil Aviation and completing a formal membership agreement, and moves up to the status of "Member Elect"

At this time, Kingfisher is now negotiating all the bi-latteral agreements with other members of Oneworld, whilst preparing to dump the non-Oneworld codeshares

BA's Willie Walsh is quoted as saying:

"I believe that Kingfisher and oneworld are natural partners,"

"In just five years, Kingfisher Airlines has established itself as one of India's leading airlines. It today carries more domestic passengers than any other single Indian airline [and] offers more daily departures than any of its competitors across the widest network within the subcontinent." 

Kingfisher is still on-target for a join in 2011, and S7 is still on target to join the alliance in late 2010 (if the 18 month period that is required is observed, this puts it in the  October/November timeframe).

For travellers this is a bit of good news - more choice is always good when travelling.