Swiss joins Oneworld alliance

British Airways has signed a deal with Swiss International Air Lines to make the Swiss carrier part of the Oneworld global airline alliance.

Under the agreement British Airways and Swiss operate jointly between the UK and Switzerland from next week.

British Airways will also enter into a slot exchange agreement giving it control of eight valuable slots at Heathrow airport. As of now, the British airline controls almost 40% of the takeoff and landing slots at Heathrow.

The Oneworld alliance is headed by British Airways and American Airlines, the world's largest airline, and also includes Aer Lingus, Finnair, Iberia amongst others.

It aims to help airlines lower costs and increase revenue by feeding passengers between members' networks.

Swiss was created by the government out of the ruins of SwissAir in March 2002 has been losing money and plans to cut around 3,000 jobs.