Code Sharing Agreements

• A code sharing agreement is business arrangement between two or more airlines to market and sell flights under the same flight number but their own airlines designator regardless of which partner airline actually operates the flight.
•  These agreements are most common between a carrier that wants to expand their flight services beyond their current services but are not ready to make the significant investment necessary to expand into the area alone. For instance, one airline may fly from the U.S. to London-Heathrow but not into Johannesburg, South Africa. In order to expand services to Johannesburg, the airline may negotiate a codeshare agreement with an airline that flies from London-Heathrow to Johannesburg.
• As part of the agreement, the airline wanting to expand service would purchase tickets from the operating airline at a contracted discounted rate and then sell them at a mark up to their customers.
• The operating airline benefits from having having guaranteed, booked revenue. The marketing airline benefits from being able to offer extended flight service. The customer benefits by being able to book a flight on a single ticket without worrying about flight and baggage transfers.

Delta-Air France Code Share

• Delta has a joint venture code share agreement with Air France, KLM and Alitalia.
• This code share agreement has created "the world’s largest transatlantic network — nearly 250 daily flights across the Atlantic and service to almost 500 destinations in Europe and North America."
• Delta customers can enjoy seamless connections from hubs in Amsterdam, Atlanta, Boston, Cincinnati, Detroit, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York-JFK, New York-LGA, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Rome-Fiumicino, Salt Lake City, Seattle and Tokyo-Narita.
• In addition to Air France, KLM and Alitalia, Delta has code share agreements with 17 additional airlines.