Jetstar and American Airlines launch interline agreement, plan New Zealand codeshare

Jetstar and American Airlines announced (14-Oct-2010) the launch of an interline agreement, under which the carrier's plans to commence a codeshare partnership exclusively for Jetstar's expanding New Zealand presence, subject to regulatory approval. On Jetstar's New Zealand domestic network, American Airlines' code will be placed on Jetstar's domestic NZ services between Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington and Queenstown across five routes, totaling up to 116 weekly return flights. The Jetstar-American Airlines interline and ticket settlement agreement builds on Jetstar's growing base of 14 established interline partners that include Qantas, Air France-KLM, Etihad, Japan Airlines and Air Calin, while the codeshare agreement represents the LCC's third - and first with a US-based carrier - alongside existing arrangements with Qantas and Japan Airlines. Both commercial arrangements will also allow a combination of Qantas services via Los Angeles-Auckland, (which also holds an American Airlines code) and onwards throughout New Zealand with Jetstar. [more - Jetstar] [more - American Airlines]

Jetstar: "Our proposed codeshare agreement with American Airlines will enable its customers to combine travel on Jetstar, American Airlines and other codeshare carriers such as Qantas as part of a single booking. The US is both Australia and New Zealand's third largest international tourism market in terms of visitor arrivals, and worth more than NZD530 million to the NZ economy alone each year. It is through such innovative arrangements that deliver real ways to grow this market even further and demonstrate our strong long-term commitment to the New Zealand tourism industry," Bruce Buchanan, Group CEO. Source: Jetstar/American Airlines, 14-Oct-2010.