Finnair, a Finland-based air carrier and member of the Oneworld alliance, is to join its alliance partners in their transatlantic joint business.
Three other members of the alliance, British Airways, Iberia and American Airlines, formed the transatlantic joint business in October 2010, and Finnair’s introduction to the agreement is expected to provide transatlantic passengers in Europe and North America with a greater selection of flights as well as an improved number of connections.
Between them, the four airlines will operate 102 round trips per day between 42 destinations in North America and EU countries, plus Norway and Switzerland. This will be facilitated by Finnair adding its (AY*) code to certain transatlantic flights operated by its three partners, and they in turn will add their (AA*) (IB*) and (BA*) codes to the daily flights that Finnair operates between New York and Helsinki.
In addition to providing customers with more coordinated travel and connection options, frequent flyer points for all of the four companies’ programmes can still be earned on the codeshare flights, and online booking facilities including the printing of boarding passes will be available either from the airline operating the flight or the airline used to book the tickets.
Finnair’s senior vice president, commercial, Allister Paterson, said, ‘Our participation in this venture will significantly increase the portfolio of available destinations to Finnair’s existing customers, as well as open up Northern Europe to a whole new network of potential travellers. Fare combinability between the four carriers also brings more ticket flexibility to customers, as the fares and conditions are identical between the airlines. A business traveller soon will be able to combine American, British Airways, Iberian and Finnair routes flexibly when flying between Europe and North America.’
