ITA Airways after a couple of years in which it has worked hard to establish its network, following the collapse of Alitalia, is now working on consolidating airline agreements. Although ITA is likely to soon depart the SkyTeam airline alliance, here comes a codeshare agreement with an airline member of just that alliance. The Italian carrier has in fact signed a codeshare agreement with Korean Air for select routes. Let’s take a closer look at why it is an important milestone for both airlines.
What Is There to Know On The ITA Airways Korean Air Codeshare Agreement?
Starting November 21st 2023 the 2 airlines will be placing each other’s flight number on a selection of services. In other words Korean Air will be able to sell a selection of ITA routes on its sales channels and viceversa. But more on that later.
Specifically ITA Airways will place its own flight number on Korean Air flights between:
- Rome Fiumicino (FCO) – Seoul Incheon (ICN)
- Milan Malpensa (MXP) – Seoul Incheon (ICN)
- Seoul Incheon (ICN) – Daegu (TAE)
- Seoul Incheon (ICN) – Busan (PUS)
- Seoul Incheon (ICN) – Nagoya (NGO)
- Seoul Incheon (ICN) – Osaka (KIX)
- Seoul Incheon (ICN) – Fukuoka (FUK)
- Seoul Incheon (ICN) – Sapporo (SPK)
Korean Air on the other hand will be placing its own flight number on ITA Airways flights to:
- Bologna
- Venezia
- Torino
- Trieste
- Genova
- Bari
- Brindisi
- Firenze
- Catania
- Palermo
- Napoli
- Madrid
- Barcellona
- Atene
- Il Cairo
- Monaco di Baviera
Why Is It An Important Agreement For The Airlines?
ITA Airways, after the collapse of Alitalia, still hasn’t restored flights to South Korea. The old Italian flag carrier used to operate 4 weekly flights to the Korean capital. While ITA flights to Tokyo came back online fairly quickly, this hasn’t been the case for those from and to Seoul.
This agreement allows ITA Airways to sell flights to Seoul on its website and get a better grasp of what demand looks like on the route before maybe considering to launch its very own service.
Looking at the agreement through Korean Air’s eyes, it opens to the possibility of selling in a single booking flights to some of the most sought after tourist destinations in Italy. Italy is for obvious reasons a huge tourist destination for Korean holiday makers that have more and more over the years been travelling to Europe for their holidays.
The Downside
There is a little downside to the agreement. At least for myself personally. The fact that ITA and KE signed this agreement also means that the Italian carrier won’t be launching a Korean service anytime soon. For someone like me who has some relatives in Korea it means that the Asiana-Korean Air duopoly will continue. Furthermore if the merger between the two Korean carriers moves forward it’ll become a real monopoly. Prices that will become pricier and pricier for direct flights.
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