Star Alliance partners Air Canada and Avianca Brasil announced yesterday they have implemented the first stage of a codeshare agreement. Initially, Air Canada will sell, in all its channels, tickets for flights operated by its partner Avianca Brasil under the AC code, significantly expanding its distribution in the local Brazilian market.

The agreement includes flights to and from Brasília, Curitiba, Florianópolis, Fortaleza, Porto Alegre, Recife, Rio de Janeiro (Antonio Carlos Jobim-Galeao airport), Salvador and São Paulo (Guarulhos airport). Air Canada customers will enjoy the benefit of boarding through direct connections, checking-in only once and dispatching baggage to the final destination. Codeshare flights are for sale effective yesterday for travel beginning May 9.

“Air Canada operates the only service between Canada and Brazil with non-stop flights from our Toronto global hub daily to Sao Paulo and three-times weekly to Rio de Janeiro. We are pleased to enhance these services by offering our customers convenient codeshare connections to other Brazilian cities with our Star Alliance partner Avianca Brasil,” said Benjamin Smith, President, Passenger Airlines at Air Canada.

“Through this agreement, we reinforce our commitment to Star Alliance, contributing to the expansion of the flight network, which is already the most extensive among all global alliances,” said Frederico Pedreira, President of Avianca Brasil.

Customers who are members of Avianca Brasil’s Amigo or Air Canada’s Aeroplan programs already benefit from being able to earn points/miles, qualifying for program status upgrades and redemption on all 18,500 daily flights operated by Star Alliance carriers to 1,330 airports in 192 countries. In addition, members of Gold and Diamond categories are entitled to preferential check-in, extra baggage allowance, priority boarding and access to VIP lounges.