Code-sharing agreement

Code-sharing agreement derives from a common practice all over the world after the liberalisation policies regarding to air transportation services. Each carrier is entitled to use its own airline designator code inter alia to identify its flights. This airline designator code is assigned by IATA . Codesharing is an agreement between two or more carriers whereby an actual carrier opererates a flight with an another carriers designator code namely the contracting carriers code attached to its designator code to fulfill the carriage contract concluded by the contracting carrier.It is not very easy to say that there is an unanimous approach explaining the legal nature of code-sharing agreements. There are many approaches offered in this regard. Former, estimates code-sharing agreement as a contract for work and services; the latter, presumes that code-sharing agreement is an agreement which establishes a partnership. Actually, taking a wide position is complicated and disadvantageous since none of the opinions are depicted constantly and clearly. This uncertainty has several reasons. Inter alia, contents of the code-sharing agreements are not publicized while they are containing top secret commercial interests of the parties which may also interest the other actors of the market. In this thesis, code-sharing agreement is overviewed with different aspects. Keywords: Code-sharing agreement, contracting carrier, actual carrier, air traffic rights, blocked space agreement