Finnair has announced plans to join the BA/Iberia/AA transatlantic joint venture later this year.
The three carriers established the joint business agreement in 2010, and AA’s senior vice president of customer services Jon Snook told Business Traveller this week that “we’ve seen bookings grow significantly because of it”.
Finnair will now join the fold, adding its AY code to selected AA, BA and Iberia flights between North America and Europe, while the three existing joint venture carriers will add their codes to Finnair’s daily flights between New York and Helsinki.
Once integrated Finnair will be able to co-ordinate transatlantic schedules with the other joint venture airlines, and members of the Finnair Plus loyalty scheme will be able to earn points or miles on the new codeshare services. All four carriers are members of the Oneworld alliance.
Passengers will also be able to check-in and print boarding passes either on the website of the airline operating the flight, or that of the airline used to book travel.
Commenting on the news Finnair’s senior vice president, commercial, Allister Paterson, said:
“Our participation in this venture will significantly increase the portfolio of available destinations to Finnair’s existing customers, as well as open up Northern Europe to a whole new network of potential travellers.
“Fare combinability between the four carriers also brings more ticket flexibility to customers, as the fares and conditions are identical between the airlines. A business traveller soon will be able to combine American, British Airways, Iberian and Finnair routes flexibly when flying between Europe and North America.”
Finnair recently announced plans to roll out its fully-flat business class seating across its long-haul A330 and A340 aircraft, with the exception of three older aircraft (see online news February 13).
For more information visit finnair.com, ba.com, aa.com, iberia.com.
Report by Mark Caswell
