Spanair officials are hopeful that the carrier's blossoming codesharing agreement with United Airlines will turn its unprofitable Washington DC-Madrid route into a money-maker this summer.
"We are very optimistic," says Frank Badino, director of Spanair's scheduled division. The carrier's advance bookings on United Airlines codes began picking up significantly after the US major publicised the codesharing arrangement to Mileage Plus members. Such bookings now average 20 passengers a flight.
To accommodate the demand, Spanair has increased the number of seats United takes on its flights. "The summer looks very good," says Badino.
United does not operate to Spain and had no direct partner links until it teamed with Spanair, which has strong relationships with two other Star Alliance partners, SAS, which owns 49% of Spanair, and Lufthansa.
The Spanair-United partnership, implemented in phases, began last autumn. United's Mileage Plus members have been able to earn and redeem points on Spanair flights since February.
The two airlines now have several codeshares and Spanair has increased its non-stop flights between Washington and Madrid to a daily service, from five flights a week. It also operates its eastbound flight later on Thursdays to pick up passengers from United's strongest connecting bank at Washington Dulles International Airport.
The improvement in the fortunes of Spanair's Washington-Madrid flight means the carrier can continue its long-haul services. Badino says: "There are too many fixed costs with only two aircraft. There are two ways to go: we must increase the fleet or do away with it."
As bookings grow, Spanair seems likely to expand its widebody fleet. Pressure was taken off its heavily used Boeing 767-300ERs when codeshare partner Varig began operating Spanair services from Madrid to Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Spanair is also expanding its relationship with Lufthansa, its biggest code-sharing partner in terms of volume. The carriers extended their codesharing late last year to include all Spanair and Lufthansa flights between Spain and Germany.
They have added Spanair's new three-times-daily service between Madrid and Paris to the codesharing.
The only other new destination Spanair will start this year with its current fleet is Ibiza, in the Balearic Islands, which will be served during the peak summer season from Madrid and Barcelona.
Spanair is preparing for late autumn delivery of the first four of 33 Airbus A320 family aircraft on order, which will replace its Boeing MD-80s.
Spanair is also entering the regional airline business for the first time. A new company, owned by Spanair chairman Gonzalo Pascual, two others and Spanair, is set to begin service in June with two 115-seat Boeing 717s.
Initial routes are Madrid-Ibiza, Barcelona-Ibiza, Palma-Valencia and Palma-Alicante. The 717s will also be used for intra-Balearic routes and to replace MD-80s on lower-demand flights on mainline routes. Other aircraft and routes are also under consideration.
Spanair's strong growth continued in 1999 when it carried 3.5 million scheduled passengers, up 31% from 1998, and 2.3 million charter passengers, about even with 1998.
Income from scheduled services accounted for 57% of total revenues last year, surpassing the charter contribution for the first time.
| Spanair/United Airlines codeshare routes | ||
| Operator | Origin | Destination |
| Spanair | Madrid | Washington |
|
|
| Barcelona |
|
|
| Malaga |
|
|
| Palma de Mallorca |
|
|
| Lisbon |
| United Airlines | Washington DC | Boston |
|
|
| Dallas.Fort Worth |
|
|
| Los Angeles |
|
|
| San Francisco |
|
|
| New York LaGuardia* |
|
|
| Denver* |
|
|
| Chicago* |
|
|
| Orlando* |
|
|
| Philadelphia* |
| * effective 8th May | ||
Source: Airline Business
