Chilean airline Sky and Colombia’s largest airline Avianca-Taca reach a codeshare agreement, which will expand their capacity for international flights.
A codeshare agreement between the two carriers means that they can now share the same flight, with one airline marketing and selling the tickets, and the other providing the plane, crew, and boarding services.
Sky Airline expects the code sharing agreement to boost its market share of Chile’s domestic market to 25% within three years, from a current 18%-20%, according to local newswire Valor Futuro.
Company director Holger Paulmann said Sky Airline already serves around 1.5 million passengers a year, and “with the code sharing agreement with Avianca-Taca, [we] expect to add some 15,000 to 20,000 passengers per year.”
Many airlines are expecting increased competition with the looming merger between Chile’s carrier LAN Airlines and Brazil’s TAM airlines early next year. The new company will be Latin America’s largest airline, and one of the biggest globally.
Sky Airline is planning to create more codeshare agreements that will allow them access to the Brazilian market in 2013, according to Paulmann.
