Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links below. This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
Air Canada and ITA Airways are strengthening their transatlantic collaboration with the launch of a codeshare agreement. This will improve connectivity and expand travel options for passengers flying between Canada, Italy, and beyond.
Effective immediately, customers can purchase codeshare tickets for travel beginning on July 21st. Air Canada will place its “AC” code on select ITA Airways-operated flights departing from Leonardo da Vinci Rome Fiumicino Airport (FCO) to five key Italian cities: Lamezia Terme International Airport (SUF), Palermo’s Falcone Borsellino Airport (PMO), Catania-Fontanarossa Airport (CTA), Florence Airport (FLR), and Bari Karol Wojtyła Airport (BRI). The agreement also covers ITA flights to three African capitals and two other cities: Cairo International Airport (CAI), Tunis–Carthage International Airport (TUN), Algiers’ Houari Boumediene International Airport (ALG), Tirana International Airport (TIA), and Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport (TLV) (this route is currently suspended).
ITA Airways will place its “AZ” code on a number of Air Canada-operated flights departing from Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ). These include domestic connections to major Canadian cities such as Calgary International Airport (YYC), Edmonton International Airport (YEG), Montréal-Trudeau International Airport (YUL), Ottawa/Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW), St. John’s International Airport (YYT), and Vancouver International Airport (YVR) as well as select routes to the United States, including Boston Logan International Airport (BOS), Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL), and Orlando International Airport (MCO).
This announcement comes as Air Canada continues to expand its presence in Italy. This summer, it will operate up to 39 weekly flights and with more than 13,000 weekly seats to Italy. Newly launched service between Montréal-Trudeau International Airport (YUL) and Naples-Capodichino International Airport (NAP), plus existing flights to Leonardo da Vinci Rome Fiumicino Airport (FCO), Silvio Berlusconi Milan Malpensa Airport (MXP), and Venice Marco Polo Airport (VCE) are driving this growth.
Air Canada’s intermodal partnership with Trenitalia will also allow passengers to connect to 30 additional destinations across Italy via the country’s leading rail network, offering high-speed, regional, overnight, and international train services.
Mark Galardo, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, and President, Cargo at Air Canada, said:
We’re thrilled to expand our partnership with ITA Airways through our new codeshare agreement that complements our robust network to Italy. This deepening of ties will allow customers traveling on Air Canada to Rome-Fiumicino to conveniently book and seamlessly connect to ten popular destinations across Italy, Africa, Israel and Albania. Likewise, ITA Airways customers arriving in Toronto will benefit from access to 10 key Canadian and U.S. cities across our network. With work underway to facilitate ITA Airways’ entry into Star Alliance, we are developing significant partnership synergies. This will form the foundation for a strong, long-term relationship between our two flag-carrying airlines.”
Joerg Eberhart, Chief Executive Officer and General Manager of ITA Airways, added:
The codeshare agreement with Air Canada is a great step forward for our growth strategy. This partnership improves connectivity for our passengers traveling between Italy and North America, our first market beyond Italy, serving both leisure and business travelers. Moreover, it enables us to offer seamless connections for passengers of Italian origin residing in Canada and the United States, facilitating their journeys to Italy and beyond, while providing them the opportunity to fully experience the excellence of Made in Italy — a heritage that ITA Airways proudly represents as an ambassador worldwide.”
ITA Airways and Air Canada are working on introducing reciprocal benefits for members of their respective loyalty programs. This will include the ability to earn and redeem points across both airlines. The Italian airline is also on track to become a full member of the Star Alliance by early 2026.
In addition to its partnership with Air Canada, ITA Airways continues to deepen its global reach through existing codeshare agreements with the Lufthansa Group airlines. These include Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, and Air Dolomiti. These agreements open access to more than 100 destinations across Europe and beyond.
Anthony’s Take: ITA Airways is making strides in becoming much more integrated with several Star Alliance airlines. I’m hoping that when it eventually does join the alliance that we’ll see much better integration than we did with SkyTeam.
(Image Credits: Air Canada and ITA Airways.)
User Generated Content Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat encourages constructive discussions, comments, and questions. Responses are not provided by or commissioned by any bank advertisers. These responses have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the responsibility of the bank advertiser to respond to comments.
Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
1 comment
Can’t wait to redeem Aeroplan points on ITA flights!