Air India & Lufthansa to expand codeshare agreement on India-Australia route

8 May 2024 , 01:03 PM

According to a report by The Economic Times (ET), German aviation giant Lufthansa has decided to extend its codeshare arrangement with Tata-owned Air India on the well-traveled India-Australia route.

With this revised configuration, travellers on Lufthansa from Frankfurt and Munich may now easily connect to Sydney and Melbourne by taking Air India flights via the airports in Delhi and Mumbai.

In a similar vein, Air India and Swiss Airlines, both belonging to the Lufthansa group, will work together as part of the agreement. Air India flights from Zurich to Sydney, Melbourne, and Kathmandu are now available, with Delhi Airport serving as the connecting hub.

In the aviation industry, a codeshare agreement is a common business arrangement wherein two or more airlines collaborate to publish and advertise a specific flight using their individual airline designator and flight number (also referred to as the “airline flight code”) in their published schedules or timetables.

According to analysts cited by ET, this partnership is a unique occasion in which Lufthansa has consented to share its code with Air India for international operations. Although it does not directly operate on these routes, Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines (SIA) have joint ventures that handle flights from Europe to Australia.

In a related development, Vistara is being merged with Air India, with SIA owning a 25.1% share in the new airline company that the Tata Group and SIA are restructuring.

According to ET, this alliance suggested that the two airlines might work together more in the future, particularly if Air India upgrades its airport infrastructure and aircraft fleet to provide better in-flight amenities.

Additionally, the article stated that there are signs that the two airlines are aiming to establish a metal-neutral joint venture on routes connecting Europe and India, wherein income earned by both airlines will be split equally, irrespective of which airline flies the flight.

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