Qantas, Australia's national airline, introduced nonstop routes from Melbourne to Delhi and Sydney to Bengaluru. In August 2022, Qantas initiated the first stage of its codeshare collaboration with IndiGo, India's largest domestic carrier, offering travelers easy access to 13 Indian destinations. The partnership proved highly successful, leading to the addition of eight more destinations in January 2023, providing Qantas passengers with over 250 additional flight options. This week, the partnership expanded further as Qantas unveiled a new codeshare agreement, enabling passengers to seamlessly transition from its Singapore flights to IndiGo's services in Delhi and Mumbai.
Singapore serves as a pivotal hub for Qantas, facilitating nonstop routes from Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, and Brisbane to Singapore Changi Airport (SIN). Additionally, it acts as a transit point for QF1, the flagship Airbus A380 service connecting Sydney to London Heathrow Airport (LHR). Qantas travelers have the option to incorporate overnight stopovers in Singapore before continuing their journey to Mumbai and Delhi. Cam Wallace, CEO of Qantas International, noted the escalating success of the partnership with IndiGo since its inception in 2022.
Following last week's announcement regarding changes to the Qantas Asian network, the IndiGo codeshare expansion has been revealed. Due to demand falling below expected levels, the Sydney-Shanghai route will be temporarily suspended starting July 28. However, a new route between Brisbane Airport (BNE) and Ninoy Aquino International Airport (MNL) in the Philippines will commence operations on October 28, 2024. Additionally, Brisbane customers will benefit from increased options to Singapore Changi, with Qantas boosting weekly flights from seven to nine starting October 27, 2024. Furthermore, the frequency of the service between Sydney and Singapore will rise from 14 to 17 return flights weekly, effective December 11, 2024.
The Airbus A330 serves as Qantas' preferred aircraft for flights to various Asian destinations such as Singapore, Delhi, and Bengaluru, and it will also be deployed on the upcoming Brisbane to Manila route. As per data from Flightradar24, Qantas operates a fleet consisting of 10 Airbus A330-300s, 16 A330-200 passenger aircraft, and two A330-200(P2F) freighters. The existing IndiGo codeshare agreement offers seamless connections to 21 Indian cities, including Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Chennai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Goa, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Pune, Nagpur, Jaipur, and Chandigarh.