Air France and Colombia's Summa are discussing a link-up covering codeshares, beyond and behind gateway feed, and frequent flyer reciprocity.
Two months before Avianca and Aces integrated operations in May to become Summa, they started talks with Air France about extending an existing Aces-Air France accord to embrace Summa, the merged Colombian carrier.
Both sides could benefit from it. Air France now operates four weekly Paris-Bogota flights and wants to add another. Summa seeks three more weekly frequencies on the same route. Codesharing would allow both carriers to boost and consolidate transatlantic capacity quickly.
With consent from third countries, codeshares would also open many European destinations beyond Paris to Summa and many Latin cities beyond Bogota to Air France. Because Avianca had more Latin American routes than Aces, Air France views this as a special bonus.
This confirms an observation by Juan Emilio Posada, chief executive of Aces and Summa's interim president, that merging Colombia's two main airlines makes them a more attractive alliance partner than either was alone.
An accord between Summa and Air France raises the question of Summa's eventual membership of the SkyTeam alliance. Previously Summa officials said their choice of a US partner would dictate which global alliance Summa joined, but the lack of visible progress on that despite several US visits, suggests that decisions might come in reverse order.
Ludovic Dupont, Air France representative for South America's Andes region, predicts that Air France and Summa will complete a new pact before year end.
Source: Airline Business
