Air India and Virgin Australia today announced a new codeshare partnership that significantly boosts connectivity and the ease of travelling between India and Australia.
The unilateral codeshare agreement enables Air India to place its ‘AI’ code on flights operated by Virgin Australia. This enhances the opportunities that Air India customers have when travelling from Delhi to Melbourne or Sydney and take seamless onward connections on Virgin Australia flights to 16 destinations in Australia and New Zealand, subject to regulatory approvals. The enhanced cooperation will also ensure that passengers travelling on a single ticket will have their baggage checked through the entire journey.
The 16 cities in Australia and New Zealand include: Adelaide, Ballina/Byron Bay, Brisbane, Cairns, Canberra, Darwin, Gold Coast, Hamilton Island, Hobart, Launceston, Melbourne, Newcastle, Perth, Queenstown (New Zealand), Sunshine Coast, and Sydney.
“We are pleased to partner with Air India to make it easier for their customers to explore everything Australia has to offer. India is a growing tourism market for Australia and this partnership will encourage travellers arriving on one of Air India’s 14 weekly flights to explore more of our wonderful country thanks to seamless onward connections on the Virgin Australia network,” said Alistair Hartley, Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer, Virgin Australia.
“Australia is one of Air India’s most important international markets, so it is incredibly exciting for us to be partnering with Virgin Australia to expand our presence in the region. While the partnership provides greater ease and access for the large Indian diaspora spread across the continent, it also opens up a whole new range of destinations for holidaymakers wanting to soak up the beaches of Gold Coast, discover Tasmania, or to explore the natural wonders of The Great Barrier Reef,” said Nipun Aggarwal, Chief Commercial Officer, Air India.
Air India operates 14x weekly flights from India to Australia, flying non-stop daily from Delhi to Melbourne and Delhi to Sydney. The airline utilises its Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft on these routes, featuring 18 flat beds in Business Class and 238 spacious seats in Economy Class. The airline recently changed its timings to Australia to better connect to its European bank of flights. The new timings leads to longer connecting times on some of these routes which are part of codeshare. However, these do not form the major chunk of passengers and merely opens up a single ticket itinerary for passengers.
Codeshare bookings will start from 11 February 2025, with the first codeshare flights to operate from 18 February 2025. Virgin Australia went through financial challenges and change in ownership in the middle of COVID, which ironically saw IndiGo’s parent Interglobe explore opportunity. The Air India – Virgin Australia tie up was a no-brainer with Qantas already having a partnership with IndiGo. Like India, Australia too has its aviation largely divided into two main airlines.
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