Code sharing

Code sharing is a business term used in the airline industry[?]. Most if not all major airlines nowadays have partnerships with other airlines, so called airline alliances. Code sharing is a major reason to start such a partnership.

The term 'code' refers to the flight number that is used in flight schedules[?]. Under a code sharing agreement participating airlines can present a common flight number for:

• Connectings flights
  

While obviously and importantly this paints a simpler picture to the customer, it is not only a cosmetic operation: cooperating airlines also strive to synchronize their schedules, thus making transfers between connecting flights less time consuming.

• Flights from both airlines that fly the same route
  

This allows optimisation of the flight frequency on the route.

A lot of competition in the airline industry revolves around ticket sales (also known as 'seat booking') strategies. Travel agents have a preference for flights which provide a direct connection. Code sharing gives this impression. Computerized reservation systems[?] (CRS[?]) also often do not discriminate between direct flights and code sharing flights and present both before options that involve several isolate stretches run by different companies.