Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Blue to codeshare

Virgin Atlantic has teamed up with its Australian sister airline Virgin Blue for a codeshare agreement which comes into effect 17 July 2005.

The IT teams of Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Blue and Navitaire will roll out new codeshare technology successfully linking the unique Navitaire ‘Open Skies’ reservations system utilised by Virgin Blue and many of the world’s low cost carriers with the more complex traditional reservations system used by Virgin Atlantic. 

The development allows Virgin Atlantic, which currently flies daily from London Heathrow to Sydney via Hong Kong, to extend its flights to the region - through a codeshare service operated by Virgin Blue - to Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Cairns, Gold Coast and Coolangatta. Passengers flying on both airlines will benefit from being able to: 

- Travel to, from and within Australia on a single Virgin Atlantic code on designated services. 
- Enjoy smoother domestic and international connections between the two airlines
- Avoid multi-booking for various domestic and international flights.

Virgin Blue Chief Executive Officer Brett Godfrey said, “It’s an exciting step forward as it streamlines the process of booking ‘Virgin all the way’ making it easier for travel agents to book our passengers on both airlines.

“It also signals how, together, we can make a growing contribution to Australian inbound tourism, offering multi destination Australian itineraries in Northern Hemisphere markets to bring visitors into Sydney on Virgin Atlantic’s flights from London, and flying them further in Australia onboard Virgin Blue.”

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