Emirates announced that it had inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Italian flag carrier ITA Airways.
The MoU, which was signed at ITB Berlin 2024, will allow the airline to expand its existing interline agreement into a full codeshare partnership. Once in place, the codeshare will boost travel options and connection choices for passengers traveling between Dubai, Italy and onwards.
Under the planned codeshare, Emirates said its customers will be able to smoothly travel to a number of domestic cities in Italy from Rome, including popular tourist destinations like Florence, Genoa, Palermo, Trieste, among others. Outside of Italy, passengers will also be able to connect to cities across Europe including Tirana, Sofia, and other major cities.
Meanwhile, ITA Airways customers will benefit from enhanced connectivity options to the Emirates route network from Dubai. The agreement between the two airlines will eventually offer combined ticketing and seamless baggage transfers.
The MoU also seeks to establish extending reciprocal loyalty benefits on both airlines’ frequent flier programs at a later stage.
“Enhancing our partnerships and boosting our presence in key regions such as Europe is an integral part of our commercial strategy, and underscores our commitment to providing customers flexibility through our partners’ complementary networks,” Adnan Kazim, Deputy President and Chief Commercial Officer for Emirates, said in a statement.
Kazim added: “Working closely with ITA Airways will strengthen our footprint across exciting cities in Italy, and key points in Europe. We look forward to fully activating our partnership with ITA Airways in the coming months and providing unrivaled access to both of our growing networks.”