AA, BA and Iberia announce further codeshares

American Airlines, British Airways and Iberia have advanced their transatlantic joint-venture by announcing a further 317 codeshares on flights between Europe and the US. The new codeshares join 2,600 others introduced in October this year (see online news October 6), covering routes between Spain and the US, and the UK and the US. The new batch adds codeshares on flights to Canada, Mexico and a greater number of European cities. AA will add its code to 57 BA flights and four Iberia flights covering 18 destinations. BA in turn will add its code to 42 AA flights and 56 Iberia services (26 destinations). 72 AA flights and 86 BA flights, representing 47 destinations, will now carry Iberia’s code. The new codeshares will go on sale from December 20 for travel starting from December 28. BA said passengers would be able to use any of the three airlines’ websites as a “one-stop-shop” allowing them to mix-and-match flights according to “itinerary and pocket”. The three airlines, as part of the joint business venture, stand to serve more than 400 destinations in over 100 countries with 5,200 flights per day. BA’s commercial director Andrew Crawley said the three airlines would continue to align their policies, while Iberia’s general director commercial, Manuel López Aguilar, said that without the joint venture it could not offer planned new routes such as those to Los Angeles and Miami. All three airlines have announced new routes for spring 2011 which they say are a benefit of the joint venture. These are New York JFK-Budapest and Chicago-Helsinki with American Airlines; London Heathrow-San Diego with British Airways; and Barcelona-Miami and Madrid-Los Angeles with Iberia. For more information visit aa.com, ba.com, iberia.com. Report by Andrew Gough