Avianca Brasil and Alitalia are to implement a code-share agreement through which initially the Italian airline will sell air tickets with it’s ‘AZ’ code to its partner destinations in Brazil.

This will increase Alitalia’s penetration in the market, and the airline says the agreement will also expand connectivity for travellers arriving in the country with the Italian carrier.

Customers of Alitalia will be able to fly to their chosen destination in Brazil with a unique ticket, checking in once at the departure airport for the entire journey, and collecting the checked baggage at the end of their trip in the destination airport.

“This news is part of our strategy to offer opportunities for connecting Brazil and the world through partnerships that result in the provision of more benefits to customers and simplify the journey of passengers from the moment of purchase of tickets,” said Frederico Pedreira, president of Avianca Brazil.

Pedreira continued: “We are very happy to make this announcement in a moment of full expansion of the company and will continue to evaluate new opportunities that add even more value to our products and deliver results to the business.”

The shared network will include 21 national and international destinations in connection with Alitalia services to/from São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Sales for flights are already available from 3 July.

“We are pleased to start this commercial agreement with Avianca Brasil which is a very important partner for Alitalia in a key market with a significant presence of the Italian community and where we have recently increased our number of frequencies and seats offered”, said Massimo Iraci, chief strategy and operations of Alitalia. “Alitalia is going ahead with its strategy to develop commercial agreements with major international airlines, with the aim to provide its customers with an increasingly larger number of destinations, routes and frequencies especially in those markets which present great growth opportunities for the airline.”