What is a codeshare — and who pays?

When the airline on your ticket is not the airline flying the plane, one of them still owes you. Here is which.

Legal referenceEU 261, Art. 2(b)

A codeshare is when the airline that sold you the ticket — the "marketing carrier" — is not the airline that actually operates the flight — the "operating carrier". Your ticket carries one airline’s code, but a different airline flies the aircraft.

Under EU 261, the obligation to pay compensation falls on the operating carrier — the one that ran the flight — regardless of whose name was on the ticket you bought.

In practice the two airlines often point at each other to stall the claim. Naming the operating carrier and citing the definition in Art. 2(b) ends that game and sends your letter to the party that is actually liable.

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