easyJet (London Luton) has unveiled its own connecting hub project - Worldwide by easyJet - with Norwegian, Loganair, and Canada's WestJet its first partner carriers.
The budget carrier said in a statement the Worldwide by easyJet initiative would allow passengers to connect their easyJet flight with partner airline flights.
"Legacy airlines have traditionally offered connectivity through costly and complex interline and codeshare agreements and procedures – with Worldwide by easyJet these will be replicated by self-connect and sales partnerships through a digital, virtual hub which will offer the same sort of connectivity but more simply and efficiently," it said. "All of this new connectivity has been enabled by technology partner Dohop."
easyJet is also starting to sell stand-alone tickets on behalf of partner airlines alongside the connectivity product on easyJet.com. Loganair tickets will be available on the LCC portal from October onwards.
easyJet expects the service to expand to other key airports in Europe in future, including Milan Malpensa, Geneva, Amsterdam Schiphol, Paris CDG and Barcelona El Prat. The UK-based LCC says it will sign other airlines up to its proposal with talks said to be "already far advanced" with unspecified Middle and Far Eastern carriers amongst others.
The move rivals that of Ryanair (FR, Dublin International) and its "Connecting Partners" initiative for which Air Europa (UX, Palma de Mallorca) is the launch carrier. Norwegian has also been linked to the project in the past.
