Air Canada and ITA Airways have announced a new codeshare agreement to provide travellers with additional travel options when flying between Canada and Italy.
The agreement will see Air Canada place its AC code on a number of routes operated by ITA Airways from Rome-Fiumicino.
Destinations planned to bear the AC code include Lamezia Terme, Palermo, Catania, Florence, Bari, Cairo, Tunis and Algiers; as well as Tirana and Tel Aviv (the latter of which is temporarily suspended).
In return, ITA Airways will place its AZ code on Air Canada routes operating from Toronto Pearson including flights to Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary and St. John’s; as well as selected services from Canada to the United States such as Boston, Orlando, Dallas, and Fort Lauderdale.
Joerg Eberhart, Chief Executive Officer and General Manager of ITA Airways, said:The codeshare agreement with Air Canada is a great step forward for our growth strategy.
This partnership improves connectivity for our passengers traveling between Italy and North America, our first market beyond Italy, serving both leisure and business travelers. Moreover, it enables us to offer seamless connections for passengers of Italian origin residing in Canada and the United States, facilitating their journeys to Italy and beyond, while providing them the opportunity to fully experience the excellence of Made in Italy — a heritage that ITA Airways proudly represents as an ambassador worldwide.
Over the course of the summer, Air Canada will operate up to 39 weekly flights with 13,000 weekly seats to Italy. The operator recently launched a new route between Montreal and Naples, with the latter becoming the airline’s fourth non-stop connection between Canada and Italy in addition to Rome, Milan and Venice.
Currently, ITA Airways operates 59 destinations, including 16 intercontinental, 27 international and 16 domestic routes, with the summer peak seeing flights to 12 additional seasonal Mediterranean destinations from Rome Fiumicino and Milan Linate, including the Balearic Islands (Ibiza, Majorca, Menorca), several Greek islands (Rhodes, Heraklion, Corfu, Zakynthos, Kefalonia), as well as the Italian islands of Lampedusa and Pantelleria.
Mark Galardo, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, and President, Cargo at Air Canada, said:We’re thrilled to expand our partnership with ITA Airways through our new codeshare agreement that complements our robust network to Italy. This deepening of ties will allow customers travelling on Air Canada to Rome-Fiumicino to conveniently book and seamlessly connect to ten popular destinations across Italy, Africa, Israel and Albania. Likewise, ITA Airways customers arriving in Toronto will benefit from access to 10 key Canadian and U.S. cities across our network.
With work underway to facilitate ITA Airways’ entry into Star Alliance, we are developing significant partnership synergies. This will form the foundation for a strong, long-term relationship between our two flag-carrying airlines.
Sales of the new codeshare tickets are available now, with travel beginning 21 July. The two airlines have also confirmed they are working towards the implementation of reciprocal earning and redemption capabilities for their respective loyalty schemes.
