Panama-based Copa Airlines and Lufthansa Group have agreed to expand the scope of their existing codeshare to allow Copa to commercialize and market the Panama-Frankfurt-Panama route, which is operated by Lufthansa. Copa will now be able to codeshare the route with a Copa Airlines flight number.

“With this alliance … passengers will have better options to connect to and from all Latin America through Copa’s Hub of the Americas in Panama,” Copa VP-commercial Christophe Didier said. “Similarly, it will now be easier to and more comfortable for passengers anywhere in Latin America to directly reach their destination in Europe.”

Lufthansa Group’s member airlines include Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and SWISS. Both Copa and Lufthansa Group are Star Alliance members. Lufthansa Group’s GM in Panama Felipe Bonifatti described the codeshare extension as a “more complete commercial agreement” that expands and consolidates the “relationship that has united us with Copa Airlines for many years now.”

Copa Airlines, a subsidiary of Copa Holdings, also has codeshare agreements in place with fellow Latin American carriers Avianca, GOL, Grupo Aeromexico and Ecuador’s TAME, as well as European carriers Iberia and KLM, and Chicago-based United Airlines.

Source Mark Nensel – ATWOnline.com