AA, Iberia & BA in Joint Venture

The future of joint ventures and code share flights is bright with Iberia, American and British Airways recent agreement. The three biggest airlines of their countries have added another 317 code share flights to their trans-Atlantic joint business between North America and Europe, this week. The airline will now also be operating flights to Mexico, Canada, and many cities across Europe.

Earlier in 2010, the three airlines have announced to launch more than 2700 code share flights, between the UK and US and Spain and the US.

The transatlantic joint business that was officially launched in October this year has additional benefits for customers using any of the code share routes. Such as:

1. Coordinated schedules on joint business routes to provide customers with more flight choices and timings.

2. Dedicated support teams for customers transferring at five of the airlines’ hubs: New York JFK, London Heathrow, Madrid, Chicago and Miami.

3. Online check-in and boarding pass printing with either the airline operating the flight, or the airline the ticket was booked through.

4. Integrated online flight information on all three airlines’ websites.

5. More integrated account management for corporate customers.

Other than that, the US based airline American Airways, UK’s British Airways and Spain’s Iberia has announced addition of five new routes to their network as an outcome of the joint venture.

The airlines have stated that the flights on these new routes will be starting in spring 2011 and will include:

· Flights to New York JFK-Budapest route and Chicago-Helsinki operated by American Airlines.

· Flights between London Heathrow and San Diego to be operated by British Airways and

· Flights to Barcelona-Miami and Madrid-Los Angeles to be offered by Iberia Airline.

Other than that, American Airline will add frequencies from New York JFK to Barcelona and Miami to Madrid for already-existing service. These new frequencies also begin in spring 2011.