Qatar Airways has announced the first stage of a “strategic partnership” with American Airlines for passenger services.
Cargo was not mentioned in the announcement but the US and Middle East carriers will explore “joint commercial and operational initiatives”.
Qatar Airways is placing its code on American Airlines’ domestic flights and the codeshare will be rolled out in phases over the next few weeks.
Once completed, it will see Qatar Airways’ code placed on over 1,000 of American Airlines’ domestic flights connecting with Qatar Airway’s 10 US gateways.
The first phases of the codeshare will see Qatar Airways’ passengers able to book travel on American Airlines’ extensive domestic connections via Chicago (ORD) and Dallas (DFW) to 200 cities including Miami (MIA), Houston (IAH), Atlanta (ATL), Detroit (DTW), Minneapolis/St.Paul (MSP), Seattle (SEA), and San Francisco (SFO). Additional cities, including destinations in Central America, and the Caribbean will be added, subject to government approvals.
Qatar Airways Chief Commercial Officer Simon Talling-Smith said: “This codeshare is just the first step in renewing our long-term strategic partnership with American Airlines.
“The rollout of this domestic codeshare demonstrates our airlines are confident about the future and during this difficult time we continue to focus on how we can enhance the customer experience for our millions of passengers.
“As two of the strongest airlines in the world, I have no doubt that we will overcome the current challenge and be well positioned to continue providing our passengers the reliable, safe and award-winning service that they have come to trust from us.”
American Airlines Senior Vice President of Network Strategy, Vasu Raja said: “We are pleased that we’ve reached this important milestone with Qatar Airways. We look forward to welcoming Qatar Airways passengers throughout our domestic network as we continue to focus on the wellbeing of our customers, team members and the communities we serve during this uncertain time.
“This is just the beginning of a strong partnership and we have a very bright future ahead of us.”
Further expansion of the strategic partnership* will include Qatar Airways placing its code on American’s international flights to North, Central and South America and Europe, and American Airlines placing its code on Qatar Airways flights between the US and Qatar and beyond to a range of destinations in the Middle-East, Africa and Asia.
Both airlines will also continue exploring the opportunity for American Airlines to operate flights between the US and Qatar, along with a number of joint commercial and operational initiatives to further strengthen this renewed partnership. It is not clear if this includes cargo.
*Subject to regulatory approval.
