Royal Jordanian (RJ), the national flag carrier, has signed a new free-sale codeshare agreement with SriLankan Airlines.

Under the agreement, SriLankan Airlines may sell as many seats between Amman and Colombo as RJ, with no limitation on the number of seats sold by SriLankan.

Tickets bought according to the codeshare agreement go on sale starting with August 22, for travel starting August 26. Under the agreement, SriLankan Airlines will be the marketing carrier and will place its marketing carrier code on flights operated by RJ on the Amman-Colombo route.

This first stage of the agreement might be expanded in the future and transformed into a bilateral agreement, whereby RJ will put its code on the flights of the SriLankan Airlines flying beyond Colombo, after obtaining the necessary traffic rights for each carrier.

This expansion of the agreement is bound to include more points in the SriLankan Airlines network, giving more travel options to RJ travelers.

RJ president and CEO Amer Hadidi said that RJ is glad to partner with one of Asia’s fastest growing airlines, acknowledged for its high-class service and reliability, particularly that it will become a full-fledged oneworld member next year.

“Our partnership will also allow us to boost the oneworld global network in a region of high air travel demand,” he said.

SriLankan Airlines’ CEO, Kapila Chandrasena, said: “Royal Jordanian becomes SriLankan’s sixth codeshare partner, and the first that is a full-fledged oneworld member. We look forward to a future that will give us more opportunities together with Royal Jordanian, where we will build on the synergies of the two networks and explore avenues of cooperation.”

SriLankan Airlines has been elected as a oneworld member and is expected to join the global alliance late next year.

With this agreement, RJ’s codeshare agreements with the oneworld carriers reaches six: American Airlines, Air Berlin, British Airways, Iberia, Siberia airlines, in addition to the member elect SriLankan Airlines. RJ has such agreements with other international airlines, including US Airways, Tarom, Gulf Air, Syrian Air and Malaysia Airlines.

RJ has been running regular service to Colombo since 1991, and currently operates three weekly flights. – TradeArabia News Service