Emirates and V Australia Sign Codeshare Agreement

Emirates and Virgin Blue Group’s new international airline, V Australia, have signed a codeshare agreement.

The codeshare agreement, effective 25 October 2009, will provide V Australia guests seamless connections when travelling between New Zealand and the USA. Passengers can travel on the Trans-Tasman sector using Emirates and connect conveniently to/from V Australia’s international service between Sydney and Los Angeles.

Emirates flights, EK419 arriving from Christchurch into Sydney at 6.20pm or EK 413 arriving from Auckland at 8.05pm connect seamlessly with V Australia’s Los Angeles service, VA1, at 9.05pm.

The return flights to New Zealand are equally convenient. Passengers touch down in Sydney at 6.05am on VA2 from Los Angeles, briefly stretch their legs before connecting on EK412 at 8.50am to Auckland or EK418 at 10.15am to Christchurch.

Travellers are able to enjoy a stopover in Sydney in either direction before continuing on their journey with Emirates or V Australia.

V Australia will market the seats allocated to it under the codeshare agreement. The codeshare flights will be identified with the Emirates ‘EK’ code as well as with V Australia’s ‘VA’ code.

Richard Jewsbury, Emirates’ Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations Far East and Australasia said, “Emirates is prudent when it comes to choosing codeshare partners and our decision to join hands with V Australia is further demonstration of our commitment to the Australian aviation industry. We are pleased to finalise this agreement ahead of the peak summer travelling season, and expect the services to be extremely popular with leisure and business travellers seeking quick onward connections to/from V Australia’s international Sydney operations.”

Brett Godfrey, Chief Executive, Virgin Blue added, “Emirates is a highly regarded, world-class carrier and we are delighted to confirm Emirates as V Australia’s first codeshare partner. The two carriers are an ideal fit in that they share the same commitment to quality and service and we very much look forward to working further with Emirates.”

Emirates and the Virgin Blue Group already share a strong partnership via reciprocal benefits within the two airline’s frequent flyer programmes - Skywards and Velocity respectively. Emirates is also an interline partner of Virgin Blue.

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