What?
Codeshare is an advanced form of interlining. Instead of just allowing itineraries to contain legs operated by other carriers, the so-called “marketing carrier” will actually assign own codes (hence the name) to flights of the so-called “operating carrier”. To passengers, a connection containing codeshare flights will look like it’s from a single operator and GDSs favor connections without code changes, giving them a higher ranking in search results.
Besides the custom codes, codesharing works very similar to interlining, although more complex compensation schemes might be used. Operating carriers might also opt to sell fixed capacities to the marketing carrier, essentially passing on a part of the commercial risk of operating a flight to the marketing carrier.
Why?
It’s an advanced feature that facilitates tight-knit cooperation between airlines (for example in alliances) and as such has been requested many times by a lot of players over the years. The actual benefits of the feature aren’t actually that pronounced, but this might change as we actually write up a draft for this feature. As such, please share your ideas of how this feature could have an actual impact on the game.
When?
TBD
