Air India and Singapore Airlines (SIA) have expanded their codeshare agreement, adding 11 Indian and 40 international destinations to their combined network. The two airlines are close partners, and SIA is set to become a stakeholder in Air India with the upcoming merger of Vistara into the Maharaja next month.
From Oct 27, 2024, AI and SIA will codeshare on each other’s flights, between Singapore and Bengaluru and Chennai, increasing their total weekly scheduled codeshare services between the countries to 56 from 14.
SIA will codeshare on AI’s domestic flights between Delhi and Amritsar, Bengaluru, Coimbatore, Lucknow, and Varanasi, and between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bengaluru, Coimbatore, Goa, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, and Thiruvananthapuram, as well as between Kolkata and Guwahati.
Air India customers will be able to access 29 destinations across SIA’s network. These are Adelaide, Brisbane, Cairns, Darwin, Melbourne, Perth, and Sydney (Australia), Bandar Seri Begawan (Brunei), Phnom Penh and Siem Reap (Cambodia), Denpasar, Jakarta, Medan, and Surabaya (Indonesia), Fukuoka, Nagoya, Osaka, Tokyo-Haneda, and Tokyo-Narita (Japan), Busan and Seoul (South Korea), Kuala Lumpur and Penang (Malaysia), Auckland (New Zealand), Cebu and Manila (the Philippines), as well as Danang, Hanoi, and Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam). This includes existing codeshare arrangements to Kuala Lumpur.
SIA customers will also be able to connect to Air India’s international services from Bengaluru, Delhi, and Mumbai to 12 destinations across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. These are Copenhagen (Denmark), Paris (France), Frankfurt (Germany), Milan (Italy), Nairobi (Kenya), Amsterdam (the Netherlands), Jeddah and Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), Colombo (Sri Lanka), as well as Birmingham, London-Gatwick, and London-Heathrow (the United Kingdom).
This is the first extensive expansion of codeshare arrangements between the airlines since 2010 and both airlines plan to gradually include other destinations in their network to the codeshare arrangements.
AI CCO Nipun Aggarwal said, “This is a continuation of our effort to offer our guests more choices and an extended global network. Air India and Singapore Airlines have been longtime partners, and with this expanded scope of our codeshare agreement, we are excited to offer our guests greater connectivity to destinations across Southeast Asia, the Far East, and Australasia. We also look forward to welcoming Singapore Airlines customers on board our flights within India as well as westward to multiple points across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East via our hubs in India”.
SIA CCO Lee Lik Hsin said, “This expansion of Singapore Airlines’ codeshare arrangements with Air India reflects the strong collaborative spirit between our two carriers. It demonstrates our commitment to meeting the high demand for air travel between India and Singapore and beyond, and contributing to the growth of both aviation markets. Adding Air India’s domestic network to our codeshare arrangements will also offer our customers enhanced connectivity and convenience in India, which is a key market for the SIA Group”.