airberlin and British Airways: codeshare agreement from July

airberlin and British Airways have reached a codeshare agreement covering selected flights within Europe. Scheduled to start on 5 July 2011, the cooperation agreement applies to flights to 40 over European destinations served by the two airlines.

Business travellers and holidaymakers will in future be able to reserve flights with an airberlin flight number from various German airports to London Heathrow, with the flights themselves being operated by British Airways. The code share also applies to non-stop British Airways flights from Frankfurt and Zurich to London City Airport, and flights from Salzburg to London Gatwick. Connecting flights within Britain will be available to passengers from the three London airports of Heathrow, Gatwick and London City Airport, as well as flights to Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and the Canary Islands.

In return, British Airways will be codesharing on the airberlin flights from London Gatwick to Nuremberg, as well as those from London Stansted to Paderborn and Münster/Osnabrück under its own flight number. British Airways passengers will also gain access to airberlin's network within Germany and Europe, enabling them to fly, for example, from Munich to Italy (Brindisi, Lamezia Terme, Palermo) or from Berlin-Tegel to Gothenburg in Sweden.

Joachim Hunold, CEO airberlin, said: "British Airways is our sponsoring airline within oneworld®. That makes this new agreement a milestone for us as we look forward to the coming year, during which airberlin will be joining the alliance. Thanks to these codeshare flights with British Airways, our passengers will now have available to them two further airports, in addition to Gatwick and Stansted, from which they can continue their journey towards other destinations in the UK."

Keith Williams, CEO British Airway, said: “The new airberlin services are the perfect complement to our existing European routes. Both airlines are committed to a full service offering and excellent value for money and this codeshare provides our customers with a preview of what is to come when airberlin officially joins oneworld next year.”

About airberlin:
airberlin is Germany's second largest airline. The company has a workforce of 8,900 employees. In 2010 alone, airberlin received over 10 awards for service and quality. The fleet comprises of 170 aircraft with an average age of five years, making it one of the most modern fleets in Europe. The airline's state-of-the-art jets are highly fuel efficient, which contributes toward a long-term reduction in pollution emissions from aircraft. As one of the major European airlines, airberlin flies to 163 destinations in 39 countries. In 2010, the airline carried 33.6 million passengers. airberlin has signed a declaration to join the global airline alliance oneworld® and is expected to become a full member at the start of 2012. airberlin has been offering flights under codeshare agreements with American Airlines and Finnair since November 2010.

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Mail: abpresse@airberlin.com

This release was published on openPR.