Code-Sharing Can Be A Confusing Practice

Instead, the aircraft boar the livery of Virgin Express, part of Richard Branson's group.

Many travellers have had similar tales to tell in recent years. Some have booked their ticket with one airline and found themselves changing aircraft halfway through their journey, to one operated by another carrier.

The passengers' experiences are the result of the proliferation of airline alliances around the world, and the code-sharing that goes with them.

Code-sharing is when airlines sell tickets on flights operated by another carrier. The flight carries the two letter flight codes of both carriers. This means that if you book a flight with Airline A, you could end up flying with Airline B, but your ticket will show Airline A's flight codes.

Many people have condemned these arrangements, describing them as a fraud on the passenger. We think code-sharing is inappropriate because it is based on misleading consumers that they are buying one thing while selling them another, said one executive.

As long ago as 1984, two companies described the practice as deceptive.

These critics were not consumer rights advocates. The executive was Robert Crandall, chairman of American Airlines, speaking to the American Chamber of Commerce in London in 1995. The two companies which attacked code-sharing were British Airways and KLM, the Dutch airline.

KLM has since concluded a code-sharing agreement with Northwest Airlines of the US.

BA and American have applied to regulators in the US and Europe to start a code-sharing arrangement of their own.

In fairness to Crandall, his airline was one of the last to enter the code-sharing business, following the setting up of alliances by dozens of other carriers.

There are several prominent alliances, apart from that between KLM and Northwest.

Delta Air Line of the US has alliances with Swissair, Austrian Airlines and Sabena of Belgium.

German carrier Lufthansa is part of an alliance which includes United Airlines of the US, Scandinavian Airlines System, Thai Airlines and Air Canada.

Virgin has abandoned its code-sharing agreement with Delta in favour of an alliance with Continental Airlines, also of the US.

Virgin Express, Branson's low-cost carrier, operates flights on behalf of Sabena between Brussels and London's Heathrow airport -- hence Johnson's annoyance.

In spite of earlier opposition from some of the carriers, the airlines now argue that these arrangements are good for consumers. The alliances mean that airlines are able to offer their passengers flights to destinations that they did not serve previously.

Take for example, a European business traveller who wants to fly to a small town in the US. His or her national airline will almost certainly fly to a large US city, but not to the smaller centre.

Now, the European carrier would be able to take the passenger to a large US city for transfer to an internal flight operated by the European airline's US alliance partner. The alliance partners can co-ordinate their flights so that the passengers suffer less delay and inconvenience.

Alliance partners also seek to share the same airport terminals so that passengers do not have far to walk when changing flights.

BAA, the UK airports group, has said that if it wins planing approval for a fifth terminal at Heathrow, the building will be occupied by BA and its alliance partners.

BA already has an alliance with Qantas of Australia -- in which it holds a minority stake -- and hopes to have its link-up with American by then. The airlines in the alliance led by Lufthansa and United will all operate from Heathrow Terminal One.