MONTREAL, Canada and PALMA DE MALLORCA, Spain, May 19 /CNW Telbec/ - Air
Canada and fellow Star Alliance partner Spanair today announced they have
entered a codeshare agreement that expands their networks between popular
business and leisure destinations in Canada and Spain. This follows the
re-introduction May 1, 2009 by Air Canada of non-stop flights between Toronto
and Madrid, the only scheduled service between Canada and Spain.
    "By working more closely and developing our relationship with our Star
Alliance partner Spanair, Air Canada now offers customers easier access to
some of the most popular destinations in Spain for business travellers and
vacationers, together with the full range of Star Alliance benefits," said
Marcel Forget, Vice President of Network Planning at Air Canada.
    "Our agreement with Air Canada strengthens the Star Alliance offering
from Spain, directly connecting several destinations in Spain to and from
points in Canada and provides a unique travel experience to our customers,"
said Sergio Allard, Chief Commercial Officer at Spanair.
    Customers of both airlines benefit from simplified bookings, seamless
connections on a single ticket, baggage check-through to final destination,
and other Star Alliance benefits such as reciprocal travel reward redemption
and accumulation that counts towards top tier status.
    Under the codeshare agreement, Air Canada's network has expanded to serve
six destinations in Spain on codeshare flights designated by the AC code that
are operated by Spanair between Madrid and: Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca,
Malaga, Alicante, Bilbao and Valencia. Spanair customers in turn, benefit from
an expanded network including non-stop codeshare service designated by the JK
code between Madrid and Toronto, operated by Air Canada, with convenient
connections in Toronto to and from: Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver. Both
carriers thus offer services between popular destinations in Canada and Spain,
each one using its own code throughout the entire itinerary. The new codeshare
flights are now available for purchase.
    Between Toronto and Madrid, Air Canada operates non-stop service with
211-seat Boeing 767-300ER aircraft. Air Canada's new in-flight product
features lie-flat beds in its international business class cabin, Executive
First, and digital quality seatback entertainment on demand for all customers
- on international as well as shorter North American flights, in both economy
and business class.

    About Air Canada
    ----------------

    Montréal-based Air Canada provides scheduled and charter air
transportation for passengers and cargo to more than 170 destinations on five
continents. Canada's flag carrier is the 13th largest commercial airline in
the world and serves 33 million customers annually. Air Canada is a founding
member of Star Alliance, providing the world's most comprehensive air
transportation network for Canadian domestic, transborder and international
travel. Air Canada aircraft offer customers individualized seatback in-flight
entertainment systems with hundreds of hours of digital audio-visual
entertainment. As well, customers can collect Aeroplan miles for future awards
through Canada's leading loyalty program. In 2008, the readers of Business
Traveler magazine voted Air Canada "Best In-Flight Services in North America,"
"Best Airline for Business Class Service in North America" and "Best North
American Airline for International Travel."

    About Spanair
    -------------

    Spanair, the Spanish carrier specialized in meeting the needs of business
travellers, was founded in 1986. Since 2003, it is a member of Star Alliance,
the world's largest airline alliance.
    Spanair is the second largest airline in Spain. It has a share of 23% of
Spanish domestic market: 10,2 million passengers in 2008. It has a significant
presence in the El Prat Barcelona airport where it was the leading airline in
2008 both in number of passengers (1.7 million) and number of flights (18,916
operations), Barajas Madrid and Son Sant Joan Palma de Mallorca. Currently,
Spanair operates over 200 daily flights: 87 % as a scheduled carrier (67
domestic routes and 13 routes across Europe and Africa) and a 13% as a charter
carrier, primarily during the summer.

    About Star Alliance
    -------------------

    The Star Alliance network was established in 1997 as the first truly
global airline alliance to offer customers worldwide reach and a smooth travel
experience. Star Alliance received the Air Transport World Market Leadership
Award in 2008 and was voted Best Airline Alliance by Business Traveller
Magazine in 2003, 2006, 2007 and 2008 and by Skytrax in 2003, 2005 and 2007.
The members are Air Canada, Air China, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana Airlines,
Austrian Airlines, bmi, EgyptAir, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Scandinavian
Airlines, Shanghai Airlines, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways,
Spanair, SWISS, TAP Portugal, Turkish Airlines, THAI, United Airlines and US
Airways. Regional member carriers Adria Airways (Slovenia), Blue1 (Finland)
and Croatia Airlines enhance the global network. Air India, Brussels Airlines,
Continental Airlines and TAM have been announced as future members. Overall,
the Star Alliance network offers more than 16,500 daily flights to 912
destinations in 159 countries.