Ryanair has announced a new “flight partnership” with Air Europa, which will allow its 130m customers to book long-haul flights with Spain’s number two carrier on the Ryanair.com website.

Customers can browse and book Air Europa flights on 20 long-haul routes from Madrid to 16 countries in North, Central and South America, including Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Mexico and the United States.

Ryanair describes the arrangement as the latest initiative under Year 4 of its “Always Getting Better” customer experience programme. For Air Europa, the agreement adds connections to 53 European cities.

The second phase of the partnership will be launched later this year and will allow Ryanair customers to connect onto Air Europa long-haul flights through Madrid. Ryanair says it is continuing discussions with a number of other long-haul airlines on potential feed and connecting flight partnerships.

The announcement of the Air Europa partnership follows the recent launch of Ryanair’s connecting flight service via Rome Fiumicino, allowing travellers to book and transfer directly onto connecting Ryanair flights for the first time. The arrangement includes “airside” passenger transfer and checked-in baggage transfer to connecting flights.