01 September 2009

UK passengers to benefit from Lufthansa codeshare deal

Lufthansa claims UK customers will benefit from 12 new destinations in the US and Puerto Rico after it applied for a code-share agreement with JetBlue.

JetBlue flights to Buffalo, Syracuse, Rochester, Pittsburgh, Raleigh-Durham, Austin, New Orleans, Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, West Palm Beach and San Juan will be under the Lufthansa code.

UK passengers heading to those destinations can connect with Lufthansa transatlantic flights through both Frankfurt and Munich to New York JFK or Boston and transit seamlessly there to connecting flights bearing the Lufthansa code with JetBlue.

Lufthansa general manager UK & Ireland Marianne Sammann said: "The destinations being offered are all very popular business and leisure areas that, until now, have been more difficult to access so I am sure that this will be seen as a welcome move on both sides of the Atlantic."

The code-share has been submitted for approval to the US Department of Transportation (DOT).

Pending the go-ahead, the code-share flights will be available at the end of September.

Lufthansa and JetBlue Airways concluded a series of share transactions in January last year, in which Lufthansa acquired a stake of 15.6% in JetBlue.

The US carrier, headquartered in New York, offers a daily 650 flights to 56 destinations.

By Bev Fearis