Avianca Brasil and Alitalia announce the implementation of a code-share agreement.
At first, with its “AZ” code, the Italian airline will sell air tickets to its partner destinations in Brazil, significantly increasing its penetration in the market.
The shared network will include 21 national and international destinations in connection with Alitalia services to/from São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro: Brasilia, Cuiabá, Campo Grande, Belem, Belo Horizonte (Confins), Curitiba, Florianópolis, Fortaleza, Foz do Iguaçu, Goiânia, João Pessoa, Maceió, Natal, Navegantes, Porto Alegre, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, São Paulo, Vitória, and Santiago, Chile, as an international destination. Sales are already available for travels from 3 July.
The agreement will expand the offer and connectivity for travellers arriving in the country with the Italian airline. Among other facilities, Alitalia customers will be able to fly to the desired destination in Brazil with a unique ticket, checking-in once at the departure airport for the entire journey, and collecting the checked baggage at the end of their trip in the arrival airport.
“This news is part of our strategy to offer opportunities for connecting Brazil and the world through partnerships that result in the provision of more benefits to customers and simplify the journey of passengers from the moment of purchase of tickets. We are very happy to make this announcement in a moment of full expansion of the company and will continue to evaluate new opportunities that add even more value to our products and deliver results to the business”, said Frederico Pedreira, president of Avianca Brazil.
“We are pleased to start this commercial agreement with Avianca Brasil which is a very important partner for Alitalia in a key market with a significant presence of the Italian community and where we have recently increased our number of frequencies and seats offered”, said Massimo Iraci, Chief Strategy and Operations of Alitalia. “Alitalia is going ahead with its strategy to develop commercial agreements with major international airlines, with the aim to provide its customers with an increasingly larger number of destinations, routes and frequencies especially in those markets which present great growth opportunities for the airline”, added the manager.
Currently, Avianca Brazil serves 25 domestic and four destinations abroad, with 282 daily departures, using 55 Airbus aircraft – the youngest fleet in the Americas. Alitalia, on the other hand, is the leading Italian airline and offers 18 weekly frequencies between Italy and Brazil, 11 on the Rome-São Paulo route and 7 weekly frequencies on the Rome-Rio de Janeiro route.