What does it means when a flight with one airline is "operated by" a different airline?

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SeaEff

It will be an Iberia aircraft with Iberia flight and cabin crew.

Lulubelle

It's called "Code Share". There aren't enough passengers for both airlines to fly it so one airline buys a certain number of seats on another airline so both airlines can advertise they fly the route. Sometimes one airline will fly it certain days and the other airline will fly it another day.

Charles S

Airlines have code share agreements, which is what your example is. In your example, Iberia might fly London-Madrid-Buenos Ares. BA may reckon that there's not enough business to fly to Argentina from London, so they buy a number of seats from Iberia, who might then fly a 747 instead of a 767. As a result, Iberia has a full aircraft, BA has lower overheads and there's one large aircraft flying to Argentina instead of two smaller ones.

Regarding BA and Iberia, things might get a little strange. BA is likely to take over Iberia very soon but the two airlines will retain independent identities and this will become BA paying its subsidiary for space and a code share.

There is another way in which this happens. Airline A is a large multinational and wishes to operate a feeder flight to a regional centre. Rather than operate the flight themselves, they pay another airline to operate the flight under Airline A's name. Again both parties benefit: the small airline gets a guaranteed income on the route and the large airline cuts costs because regional airlines generally pay flight crews less and generally operate on a lower cost base.

Mike R

It means that it's a codeshare flight. Both of those airlines are part of the same alliance (OneWorld). So it's actually an Iberia flight - Iberia plane, flight attendants, etc... but it has two flight numbers (Iberia AND BA). That's just how the airlines do it.... you can also travel on both airlines on the same ticket. For example, I just did this recently - I went from Madrid to Boston, on Iberia from Madrid to London, and British Airways from London-Boston but it was on the same ticket (but since I booked my ticket through Iberia it was the opposite... the ticket said "Iberia flight 0000 from London-Boston, operated by British Airways")

Munchen008

Those that answered Code Share are correct. Its a marketing agreement between airlines that extends both their routes by using each other's flights. I work for an airline and while it does work, I don't agree with having the name of the airline that doesn't operate the flight on the ticket or itinerary. For instance, you might see US air flight 9867 Seattle to Denver and then in very small print it will read "operated by United Airlines". I've seen people miss their flights because of that and its not their fault. Only the name of the airline operating that flight should be seen to avoid confusion.

Lobengula

I think Charles S post says it all.

I just want to add that this code-sharing can be confusing even for frequent travelers. You must really study the details on your itinerary otherwise you might go to the wrong terminal. Also, code sharing might prohibit you from using miles for upgrade, but not always.

For example: BA flies between Johannesburg and Cape Town. It's BA planes, BA staff and everything looks like BA. But it's not. It's Comair who operates the flights as a franchise. Even BA customer service had a problem with this when I recently called them to change a ticket. They told me to call Comair. I just hung up and called again, this time I got a person who understood this.

RadarLuv

code share

*â™¥* donna *â™¥*

It means the plane your going to fly on is an Iberia plane not a British Airways plane.

bjchi

Everyone is correct about what it means. FYI since it is operated by Iberia you should check in with Iberia not BA.

garry795

It means that if you were to book a flight with Qantas, it might say 'BA' flight... because these two airlines work in partnership, or it might say 'QF' flight... operated by 'BA', meaning the flight is being ran by Qantas, but a BA plane. If a British Airways flight is operated by Iberia, it'll be BA tickets, etc... but an Iberia plane.

ASHLEY S

basically its who owns and runs the plane.i am going away on a flight sold by 2 different companies on a plane owned by one of them

transfering? idk

OriginalBubble

It means that BA didnt have a plane available for that flight, so they will send you on an Iberia flight instead. It will be all Iberia staff etc.
They are kinda acting as agents for Iberia

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