Air Transport

Star Alliance carriers All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Continental Airlines have signed an alliance agreement.

The deal covers codesharing, lounge access and frequent flyer programmes, says ANA. Continental joined Star on 27 October.

ANA says its passengers will be able to earn and redeem points on Continental flights and vice versa, and that Star Alliance gold members will have complete access to the lounges of both carriers.

"Continental and ANA also plan to implement codeshare arrangements starting in 2010," says the Japanese carrier, which did not mention the routes that will be involved.

An ANA official, who did not want to be named, says that the carriers hope to begin the codeshare in the first half of next year. "We haven't signed the codesharing agreement yet and are still working out which routes we will codeshare on."