American AirlinesThe Chief Executives of American Airlines, British Airways and Iberia met in London on 6 October for the official start of their trilateral relationship, a relationship which enables oneworld to compete far more effectively with other global alliances on routes between Europe and North America.
The airlines subsequently announced four new routes that will start from April, as an early benefit of the new joint business. These are New York JFK-Budapest and Chicago-Helsinki, to be operated by American, London Heathrow-San Diego, to be operated by British Airways and Madrid-Los Angeles, to be operated by Iberia. The airlines have also placed code-shares on a significant number of additional routes, greatly increasing the number of destination choices available to customers.
Under their joint business, which follows approvals from the regulatory authorities in Europe and the USA in July, the three airlines will work together and share revenues on flights between the European Union (plus Switzerland and Norway) and the USA, Canada and Mexico.
From the start, the three airlines will be code-sharing on one another's routes across the North Atlantic. This means that customers will have a greater number of flights to the same destination from which to choose - and that in turn means there will be more fares available on those routes. They will be able to "mix and match" flights between the three airlines maximising their ability to find the cheapest fare for their journey. The three airlines will start aligning their schedules and retiming flights from summer next year, to provide their customers with a greater range of departure times.
