Start of code-sharing between American Airlines and British Airways is 'major milestone for oneworld'

17 September 2003

Today's launch of code-share flights by American Airlines and British Airways is a major milestone for oneworld™, the global airline alliance of which they are founding members.

Following the start of code-sharing between Cathay Pacific and Qantas last week, it means that code-sharing is now in place between 20 of the potential 28 pairings of oneworld's partners, making it easier for customers to transfer between their networks and reach the 562 destinations they serve on a combined basis.

oneworld Managing Partner John McCulloch said: "Our strategy is to increase the benefits oneworld provides its customers and shareholders by deepening the levels of co-operation between its members. After waiting many years for the necessary regulatory agreements, today's step by our American Airlines and British Airways represents a major milestone in the implementation of this strategy by our two biggest partners.

"For customers, it makes travel between Europe and the US and across the AA and BA networks smoother and simpler. For our member airlines it should increase revenues in these difficult times for our industry."

From today, the AA marketing prefix will be placed on BA services to 12 destinations – Abu Dhabi, Amsterdam, Bahrain, Brussels, Copenhagen, Doha, Dubai, Milan, Munich, Muscat, Rome and Stockholm. Flights to Accra, in Ghana, will be added from 21 September.

By the start of the new flying season, on 26 October, the AA code will be extended to BA flights to another 22 points - oneworld partner Finnair's Helsinki home and Berlin, Budapest, Cape Town, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Edinburgh, Frankfurt, Glasgow, Hamburg, Istanbul, Johannesburg, Lisbon, Manchester, Nice, Oslo, Paris, Prague, Stuttgart, Venice, Vienna and Warsaw.

Meanwhile, the BA code is added from today to AA-operated flights on 11 routes – between AA's main Dallas/Fort Worth hub and New Orleans and San Antonio, between Chicago O'Hare and Nashville, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Minneapolis/St Paul, New Orleans, San Antonio and Pittsburgh, between New York JFK and Raleigh/Durham, and between Miami and Panama City.

Additional cities will be added from January with, eventually, AA code-sharing on BA flights to up to 110 worldwide destinations, and BA on flights by American and American Eagle to up to 187 destinations in the United States, Mexico, Caribbean and Latin America.

Code-share routes will include each other's transatlantic flights serving the UK regions – BA's daily non-stops between New York JFK and Manchester and AA's between Chicago O'Hare and both Glasgow and Manchester. London services across the North Atlantic are, however, excluded.

Cathay Pacific and Qantas also started code-sharing last week, with the Australian carrier's prefix added to Cathay flights between Rome and its Hong Kong base with Qantas connections there to and from Australia, replacing Qantas' own services between Sydney and the Italian capital.

Yesterday, American Airlines and Cathay Pacific announced an expansion of their code-sharing, launched in January after a three-year wait for regulatory approvals. From 1 November, the Hong Kong-based carrier's CX code will be added to AA-operated flights to another five cities in the USA – Nashville, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, Raleigh/Durham and Tampa - taking the total to 26.

Between them, oneworld's eight member airlines - Aer Lingus, American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, Finnair, Iberia, LanChile and Qantas– serve more countries than any global airline alliance, with flights to 562 destinations in 135 countries. Members of any oneworld airline's frequent flyer scheme can earn awards and points on eligible fares and redeem them throughout this network. The eight airlines and their affiliates carried more than 225 million passengers last year on a combined fleet of almost 2,000 aircraft, earning revenues of some US$50 billion.

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