Air France, Qantas in codeshare deal

Air France passengers received some rare good news Wednesday as the French airline and Australian carrier Qantas revealed they had entered into a new codeshare agreement. The Australian carrier renewed its codeshare, dropped when it entered into its alliance with Emirates, on flights connecting in Singapore and Hong Kong. It said the deal involved up to 200 flights a week, depending on the season. Read: Air France strikes continue as crisis prompts survival warning. From July 20, Air France will add its code to Qantas flights between Hong Kong and Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and between Singapore and Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. Air France customers will also be able to access codeshare services from Sydney to five cities on the Australian airline’s domestic network: Canberra, Hobart, Adelaide, Cairns and Darwin. Qantas will add its code to flights operated by Air France between Singapore and Hong Kong and Paris-Charles de Gaulle. This will be a continuation of flights from Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth. The deal includes access by eligible Air France customers to Qantas lounges in Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia as well as the ability to earn freq8uent flyer points on the new services. Air France executive vice president Patrick Alexandres said the deal confirmed Air France’s desire to expand in the Asia-Pacific. “Thanks to this agreement, the Air France-KLM group will be able to offer one of the best possible travel solutions for its customers from Europe to Australia,’’ he said in a statement. “It will also deliver a better travel experience for our Business customers, with connections in Singapore and Hong Kong, two of the most popular airports in the world.” The codeshare agreements offers Australians another route to Europe via Asia with the opportunity to earn frequent flyer points. The carrier stopped flying its London services via Dubai in March and returned to Singapore but still has a codeshare with alliance partner Emirates on services to Paris. Qantas International chief executive Alison Webster said the codeshare as great news for Australian customers who wanted to fly to Europe via Asia and now had another option to get to Paris. “The return of this popular codeshare delivers on our strategy of partnering to provide customers with access to an expanded network and more seamless travel experiences wherever they want to fly,’’ she said.