Code-share deals extend reach of American Airlines

D.R. STEWARD - Tulsa World Comments 1
Published: July 11, 2009

In a slow travel market, American Airlines is extending its international reach for customers.

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Through extensive as well as less formal agreements with foreign airlines, American is able to sell tickets to and carry passengers from destinations it wouldn’t otherwise fly.

"Even the very large airlines with large networks can’t fly everywhere, either because they don’t have the route authority or they don’t have the assets,” said American spokesman Tim Smith.

Code-share agreements and international airline alliances permit a carrier like American to broaden its route network and increase passenger traffic by cooperating with other airlines.

American, which has daily flights at Tulsa International Airport and Will Rogers World Airport and is the largest U.S. carrier in Latin America, last week announced two new code-share agreements.

A code-share agreement with GOL Airlines of Brazil will offer customers the ability to book tickets on American to the five Brazilian cities it serves and beyond them to the 49 Brazilian cities served by GOL. The agreement will be effective later this year, officials said.

Frequent-flier miles

A separate frequent-flier agreement between American and GOL, effective this fall, will allow members of American’s AAdvantage and GOL’s Smiles frequent-flier programs to earn and redeem miles on all eligible GOL and American flights.

"American’s new frequent-flier and code-share agreements with GOL significantly increase the flexibility, in terms of flight schedule and price, available to our passengers,” said Peter Dolara, American’s senior vice president for Mexico, the Caribbean and Latin America.

"Our customers traveling to and from Brazil will now have an unparalleled choice of destinations and schedules.”

Once the code-share agreement is in effect, passengers transferring from GOL to an American Airlines flight leaving Brazil or elsewhere in South America will be able to check luggage to their American Airlines destination when they check in for their GOL flight.

Passengers traveling to Brazil on American and transferring to a GOL flight within Brazil or elsewhere in South America can purchase a single ticket for their journey rather than multiple tickets and check their luggage to their final destination.

In a separate code-share agreement announced this week, American and Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, will cooperate on ticketing and interlining of passengers.

American executives said the agreements and airline alliances have similar effects as an airline hub.

"You’re gathering people from multiple places and putting them on one airplane, which makes the airplane and the flight that much more economically viable,” American’s Smith said in a phone interview.

"At a time of capacity restraint and less demand in the marketplace, it helps to have code-shares, which funnel to you incremental passengers and revenue you would not otherwise receive.”