Kingfisher Airlines has signed a contract meaning it will now become a full member of the Oneworld alliance. India’s second largest airline, in terms of numbers of passengers, will now begin a process of integration with other members which is predicted to take between one-and-a-half to two years. In February, Kingfisher signed a memorandum of understanding which confirmed its intention to join the alliance. The airline has since gained the approval of the necessary regulatory bodies.

Kingfisher will now join other members of the Oneworld alliance including Japan Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Iberia, British Airways, Qantas, American Airlines and Finnair. A codesharing agreement has already been reached between Kingfisher and BA, and other cooperative agreements with other airlines are said to be in the works.

Commercial vice president of Kingfisher Airlines, Manoj Chacko, said that the carrier was keen to expand its domestic network. He added that Kingfisher currently connected to 70 destinations. With Oneworld the airline will now have the opportunity of flying to 800 destinations around the world.

Kingfisher’s ambitions of expansion were recently demonstrated when the airline received permission to fly from New Delhi to London Heathrow. Kingfisher plans to start flying passengers on the route by March 2011. Currently Kingfisher flies to London from Mumbai.

Other international routes include Dubai, Hong Kong and Bangkok. Rivals, Air India, are to join the world’s largest grouping of airlines, Star Alliance. However, Jet Airways, the countries biggest carrier, has not yet decided to tie itself in with an airline alliance.