Singapore Airlines and Air India jointly released a press statement this morning regarding the expansion of their codeshare agreement, which is the first such move since 2010. With a wholly owned subsidiary in Air India Express, Singapore Airlines will own 25.1% of the combined Air India.
The airline is going to see a significant expansion in its network from October 27, which will include 11 Indian cities and 40 international destinations. Apart from this, both the airlines will also codeshare on each other’s flights between Singapore, Bangalore, and Chennai, which will further increase their expansion. The total weekly scheduled codeshare services between the two countries have increased from 14 to 56. The strong synergy and competition between operators Air India Group, Singapore Airlines Group, and IndiGo is making it difficult to become the number one airline in the Indian market.
Codeshares in India
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; and between Kolkata and Guwahati.
Codeshares from Singapore
Customers of Air India have access to 29 locations throughout SIA’s network. These include the following: Bandar Seri Begawan (Brunei), Phnom Penh and Siem Reap (Cambodia), Denpasar, Jakarta, Medan, and Surabaya (Indonesia), Adelaide, Brisbane, Cairns, Darwin, Melbourne, Perth, and Sydney (Australia); Busan and Seoul (South Korea); Kuala Lumpur and Penang (Malaysia); Auckland (New Zealand); Cebu and Manila (Philippines); Danang, Hanoi, and Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam). This includes Kuala Lumpur’s current codeshare agreements.
The surprise
Through its three hubs—Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru—Singapore Airlines customers will have access to Air India’s international services to 11 destinations, including Copenhagen, Paris, Frankfurt, Milan, Nairobi, Amsterdam, Jeddah, Riyadh, Colombo, Birmingham, and London. All destinations are currently served by Singapore Airlines with the exception of Nairobi, Jeddah, Riyadh, and Birmingham.
Despite a lot of negative publicity, Singapore Airlines has shown its confidence in Air India by routing passengers through Air India. While Air India’s operations from Delhi to London already deploy the A350 with the new product, other destinations in Europe will also see the deployment of the refurbished aircraft in the future.
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