VlM and Air UK have agreed to codeshare on flights between Rotterdam, Netherlands and London City Airport from 27 October.
The flights, which will be operated by VLM Fokker 50s, bring to an end a battle between the two airlines. At one time, it looked as though it would end with Air UK buying its Belgian rival.
The two had been bitter rivals since Air UK (now wholly owned by Dutch flag carrier KLM) started scheduled services between Rotterdam and London City in 1996 in competition with a VLM service which had been running for about 18 months.
Freddie Van Gaever, VLM's chief executive says: "Air UK declared an interest in a take-over of VLM: it was provided with confidential information on VLM finances. Then they suddenly introduced a rock-bottom low-fare service between Rotterdam and London City using British Aerospace 146s. Their intent clearly was to drive VLM out of the Rotterdam market. Air UK rapidly had to scale down to Fokker 50s. It was clear KLM wanted us to leave Rotterdam to them."
Under the terms of the new agreement, both airlines will continue to market capacity under their own flight numbers on a service giving five daily return flights on weekdays and a reduced weekend service.
The agreement with Air UK is one of several codesharing deals tied up by VLM recently. On 2 September, it began a twice daily code-sharing service to Munich with Lufthansa from Antwerp via Rotterdam to reinforce a relationship which earlier saw VLM flying from Düsseldorf (Mönchengladbach) to London City for the German carrier.
Source: Flight International
