This has been quite the interesting week for the new Italian national carrier, ITA Airways. Emirates and the Italian carrier have in fact signed a codeshare agreement that will further expand further down the road. So let’s take a closer look at what the news is all about.
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ITA Airways and Emirates Sign a Codeshare Agreement
The news that brings the names of Emirates and ITA Airways together is quite interesting. The two airlines have signed a codeshare agreement. In essence the two airlines will be able to place their own flight number on the others services. Therefore they will also be able to sell on their own sale channels these flights.
Although Emirates is much larger than ITA Airways, it is a deal that benefits both parties. On the one hand ITA Airways will be able to sell tickets to any of the far-flung EK destinations. On the other hand EK will be able to sell flights to the ever-growing ITA Airways intraeuropean and medium haul network.
The ITA Emirates agreement though initially is only a codeshare agreement, will gradually develop into something more. The airlines will obviously offer seamless transits on each other’s flights via their hubs in Dubai and Rome Fiumicino. Therefore you’ll be able to travel on a combined journey with a single booking.
However there is another piece to this agreement that involves the frequent flyer programmes, Volare and Skywards. The two carrier’s will grant reciprocal loyalty benefits to status holders at a later stage. Which means that ITA Airways passengers with elite status will possibly have access to Emirates’ lounges in DXB airport.
By far this is the most important partnership agreement that ITA has signed to date. An agreement that will bring mutual benefits to travellers on EK and AZ.
An Alternative View on The Agreement
The timing of the agreement is quite unique, to say the least. Clearly the airlines have worked on this MoU for quite some time, but the news came out just days after Lufthansa showing some pessimism about the ITA takeover. The German group stated that if conditions imposed by the EU antitrust are too adverse the deal with ITA will not go through. Therefore you could read more into this agreement than just the simple codeshare.
It could somehow look like ITA Airways is closing more partnership deals just in case the deal with Lufthansa doesn’t come to fruition. A way of having more ties with powerful airlines to continue having a healthy flow of business even without LH. Also Lufthansa and Emirates haven’t always been best of friends are are often competitors in many markets. That makes this agreement all the more strange with ITA soon entering the LH family. It must be said that even though the Lufthansa acquisition was to fall through, the Italian government would still have to find another commercial partner. ITA cannot continue to be state run in the long term.
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