British Airways customers will have access to new destinations and scores more routes when the airline adds its flight code to more than 170 Vueling services.
This significant move for the two International Airlines Group (IAG) airlines heralds the beginning of a closer relationship with more codeshare routes planned for the future.
British Airways customers will be able to book Vueling flights through all BA sales channels, including ba.com, and collect Avios on these bookings. The codeshare routes are largely centred on Vueling’s operation in Italy with 37 international and 11 domestic routes available from Vueling’s Rome Fiumicino base. These include the destinations, new to BA customers, of Brindisi, Palermo, Lamezia, Valencia, Split and Nantes. Other new routes on offer through the codeshare include Heathrow to Bilbao and La Coruña, Cardiff to Malaga and Alicante, and Edinburgh to Barcelona. Tickets for the codeshare routes go on sale from 17 June for travel from 24 June, 2014.
Steve Ronald, British Airways’ head of alliances, said: “Our customers will have an even greater choice of routes, destinations and fares now that we have joined forces with Vueling. As we forge ever closer relationships with our fellow IAG airlines, Iberia and Vueling, our customers will be able to access all corners of Europe and beyond, with one simple booking on ba.com and the enticement of the collection of reward points for their loyalty. Vueling shares our commitment to excellent customer service and we are delighted that we can introduce more of our customers to their network.”
Fernando Estrada, Vueling’s director of strategy, alliances and business development, said: “We are very excited about this agreement with British Airways, which allows us to be more competitive in the market and concretely support the development of the Airport of Rome Fiumicino and tourism in the city of Rome. The agreement, which is part of the significant international expansion undertaken by Vueling, will soon be extended to other routes and markets”
Other routes in the codeshare include: Paris Orly to Catania (Sicily), Barcelona to Naples, Brussels to Venice and Copenhagen to Florence.
More of Vueling’s network will be accessible to ba.com users when further codeshare routes are added in the near future.