Air India, Singapore Airlines expand codeshare pact, add 51 new destinations

New Delhi, Oct 23 (IANS) Air India and Singapore Airlines (SIA) on Wednesday announced to expand their codeshare agreement, adding 11 Indian cities and another 40 international destinations to their network.From October 27, Air India 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 Air India’s domestic flights between Delhi and Amritsar, Bengaluru, Coimbatore, Lucknow, and Varanasi, between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bengaluru, Coimbatore, Goa, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, and Thiruvananthapuram, as well as between Kolkata and Guwahati, they said in a statement.“We are excited to offer our guests greater connectivity to destinations across South East 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, said Nipun Aggarwal, Chief Commercial Officer, Air India.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).“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, said Lee Lik Hsin, Chief Commercial Officer, Singapore Airlines.Both airlines plan to progressively include other destinations in their network to the codeshare arrangements. This marks the first extensive expansion of codeshare arrangements between the airlines since 2010, offering customers enhanced travel options between Singapore and India, as well as beyond.--IANSna/

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