airberlin and Alitalia extend commercial agreement

New destination and 25 per cent more flights to Italy

airberlin and Alitalia today announced that they will strengthen their commercial agreement to expand their flight offer between Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Italia. In particular businesses and holidaymakers will benefit from the enhanced cooperation.

Their mutual passengers will benefit from up to 25 percent increased weekly frequencies on non-stop flights to Italy including a new airberlin route from Dusseldorf hub base to Bologna with three flights a day, starting 2 May. airberlin will also add capacity from Dusseldorf to Florence and Venice with the current daily operation to both Italian cities increasing up to three services a day.

The commercial agreement between the two airlines, both members of the Etihad Airways Partners group, will see the carriers codeshare on more than 1,400 flights a week on 91 different routes including 56 non-stop services and 750 weekly flights between Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy to destinations such as Rome, Milan-Linate, Venice, Bologna and Florence, for example.

Teams from both airberlin and Alitalia have worked together to improve flight connection times and route networks to provide more choice and convenience for business and leisure travellers in one of Europe’s largest aviation markets. Small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) in the destination regions, in particular, will also benefit from the extended service, as improved connections to the regional and national aviation market will guarantee increased economic mobility.

Frequent flyers can collect and redeem topbonus and Millemiglia miles on codeshare flights thanks to a mutual loyalty programme agreement between both airlines.

The business points corporate programme used by many German firms is also available for joint airberlin and Alitalia flights.

Stefan Pichler, chief executive officer, airberlin, said: “This greater commercial collaboration with Alitalia should pave the way for increased competition and choice in the European aviation market which will greatly benefit the flying public.”

Cramer Ball, chief executive officer of Alitalia, said: “Thanks to this strengthened cooperation, we will be able to offer more competitive fares, a wider choice of flights and better schedules to our passengers, with benefits for both free competition and consumer choice. Italy, Germany, Austria and Switzerland, already tied by strong economic relationship, will now be even closer.”