Emirates set to forge new partnerships and deepen ties in Asia, Africa and Europe

Codeshare and interline partnerships will be 'critical' part of airline's next phase of growth, executive says

Emirates has built a network with partners to reach more than 800 cities. Photo: Emirates

Emirates plans to forge new partnerships and deepen co-operation on existing ones this year across Asia, Africa and Europe, as the world's biggest international airline embarks on the next phase of its growth.

The Dubai-based airline has 29 codeshare, 117 interline and 11 intermodal rail partners in more than 100 countries, Emirates said in a statement on Wednesday.

These partnerships provide direct and indirect links to more than 800 cities.

On an average week, more than 50,000 travellers connect to their destination on codeshare or interline flights operated by Emirates’ partners, it said.

"Codeshare and interline partnerships will be a critical component of our future success and a core part of our commercial strategy, and we’re working hard to develop them even further to offer a huge choice of onwards destinations for our customers," Adnan Kazim, Emirates’ chief commercial officer, said.

A codeshare allows an airline to sell tickets on the partner carrier’s flights.

Interline agreements allow passengers from two airlines to buy connecting flights on one ticket. These pacts often pave the way to codeshare agreements.

For airline passengers, such partnerships mean single-ticket itineraries, easier baggage transfers, frequent flyer benefits and airport lounge access.

Last year, Emirates signed codeshare and interline agreements with 11 airlines.

Besides the codeshare pacts with United Airlines and Air Canada, which expanded the airline’s connectivity to more than 570 destinations in the Americas, Emirates also signed up with Airlink, Aegean Airlines, Air Tanzania, ITA Airways, Bamboo Airways, Batik Air, Philippine Airlines, Royal Air Maroc, and SKY Express. The airline also recently announced an interline agreement with Kenya Airways.

As part of a long-standing strategy, Emirates has not joined any of the major global airline alliances such as Oneworld, Star Alliance, SkyTeam or others.

Across Emirates' network, partnerships with more than140 airlines have boosted connectivity options for customers through expanding city pairs on a single ticket, it said.

In Europe, Emirates has five codeshare partners including Air Malta, Air Baltic, Aegean Airlines, TAP Portugal and Siberia Airlines. Its 35 interline partners reach more than 313 cities across the continent. The airline’s rail partners in Germany, Spain and France provide on-ground connections by train and fly with Emirates on a single ticket.

In Asia, Emirates has nine codeshare partners including Japan Airlines, Korean Air and Garuda, reaching more than 150 cities.

In Australia, Emirates' decade-long alliance with Qantas jointly provides access to more than 60 destinations that the Dubai airline does not fly to.

Qantas customers can fly on Emirates to Dubai and access more than 65 cities.

In Africa, codeshares with South African Airways, Airlink, Royal Air Maroc, Tunis Air, and interline pacts with a dozen other regional carriers, have expanded Emirates' reach to nearly 130 regional cities in the continent.

In the Middle East, Emirates' partnership with flydubai has delivered connectivity to more than 215 destinations across 98 countries, and more than 250 codeshare flights to choose from on an average day.

Emirates customers can access more than 80 unique flydubai destinations and flydubai passengers can access more than 100 Emirates destinations.

In the past two years alone, the partnership has seen more than two million customers travel on the joint networks of both carriers.