Listen to a great book for free - thanks to oneworld

04 June 2009

Some of the world's most popular books are being offered for free in audio format to travellers passing through Brussels' Zaventem and Milan Malpensa airports this summer, courtesy of the oneworld®, the leading quality global airline alliance - with the service to be added soon at Rome's Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci.

In the latest phase of the alliance's promotional campaign in Belgium and Italy, oneworld is offering everyone flying in or out of those three airports - whether or not they are traveling on one of the alliance's member airlines - the chance to download up to three great "audio reads" for free.  It is believed to be the first time that audio books have been offered for free at any airport worldwide.

The library on offer features some 40 titles, covering the fields of fiction, business, society and travel, available in English, Dutch, French, and Italian.  They include Dan Brown's Angels and Demons, recently released as a major new film, along with Barack Obama's Dreams From My Father, Andy McNab's Seven Troop, Spencer Johnson's Who Moved My Cheese?, Deepak Chopra's Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, Sandro Veronesi's Caos Calmo, Paulo Coelho's De Alchemist and many more.  

To access the library, all you need to do is link your laptop, smartphone, PDA or other wireless-enabled device to the airport's wifi network - Telenet at Brussels, and Linkem or Telecom Italia at the Italian airports.

Then, when you open your web browser, you'll see a link to the oneworld Travel Library website (http://library.oneworld.com), viewable in English or Italian - which you will be able to access free of charge.   Once you are linked to that site, you can select up to three books to download - either there and then, or up to 14 days later.  It's as simple as that.  Downloading each audio book should take only a matter of minutes. 

You'll then be able to listen to the books whenever you choose.

The books can be searched by language and category, and the website will be able to display each book's cover, its title, author, subject and language, a synopsis, duration, file size and approximate download time.

The campaign is planned to run throughout the rest of this year.

oneworld Commercial Director Filip Lemmens explained the thinking behind it:  "Our aim is very simple - to increase awareness of the oneworld alliance and our member airlines among travellers - particularly those flying on business - in our key target markets of Belgium and Italy, in a way that is innovative and stands out from competition.

"Building on the impact of our award-winning Travel Stations, offering travel tips and information in a format designed for the iPhone generation, and our Charging Stations, enabling travellers to power up their mobile phones, laptops and other devices, the oneworld Travel Library is the latest illustration of the commitment of oneworld and its member airlines to make the most out of our customers' journeys.

"While anyone flying in or out of these airports on any airline can download the audio books for free, we hope this will stimulate them to consider a oneworld member airline next time they fly."

Note to editorsTo see how the oneworld Travel Library works, see  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OxtfctGYmQ or, in Italian, www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULMvppJ1Z-w

About oneworld oneworld brings together some of the best and biggest names in the airline business - American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN, Malév Hungarian Airlines, Qantas and Royal Jordanian, and around 20 affiliates including American Eagle, Dragonair, LAN Argentina, LAN Ecuador and LAN Peru.  Mexicana and its affiliate Click Mexicana will join the alliance in 2009 and Russia's S7 Airlines in 2010

Between them, these airlines:

  • Serve almost 750 airports in nearly 150 countries, with some 8,500 daily departures.
  • Offer nearly 550 airport lounges for premium customers.
  • Carry some 330 million passengers a year.
  • Employ 300,000 people.
  • Operate almost 2,500 aircraft.
  • Generate some US$100 billion annual revenues in total.

It is the only alliance with any airlines based in Australia, South America or Asia's Middle East.

The alliance enables its members to offer their customers more services and benefits than any airline can provide on its own.  These include a broader route network, opportunities to earn and redeem frequent flyer miles and points across the combined oneworld network and more airport lounges.   oneworld also offers more alliance fares than any of its competitors.

oneworld was voted the World's Leading Airline Alliance for the sixth year running in the latest (2008) World Travel Awards.   It is the only winner of this award since it was introduced in 2003.