Australian airline, Qantas stated on Friday that it is increasing its codeshare agreements with IndiGo, the biggest airline in India. In August of last year, Qantas travellers flying to Bengaluru and Delhi could seamlessly connect to other well-liked spots, including large cities like Mumbai and Chennai or iconic locations like Pune and Goa.
The Lockheed Constellation made seven stops when Qantas introduced its version of the Kangaroo Route to London in 1947. Two of those stops were on the subcontinent, passing through Karachi in Pakistan and Calcutta (Kolkata) in India. Direct flights between the two cricket-loving countries have occasionally been hard to come by despite the sizable Indian diaspora in Australia. However, it now appears that Qantas has recovered its zest for these routes.
Eight more cities are now accessible to Qantas travellers under the second phase of the deal. This means that Qantas passengers can connect to 21 Indian cities from Bengaluru and Delhi. Customers of Qantas have access to the domestic IndiGo network more freely, and more than 250 new flights are now available for booking.
It can often be challenging to change from an international to a domestic flight, but Qantas and IndiGo have planned for that and made it straightforward. Customers of Qantas flying on IndiGo can bring the same amount of luggage as they did on their flight from Australia and enjoy complimentary food and beverages while on the flight.
On connecting IndiGo flights operated with a QF code, Qantas Frequent Flyers can earn and use points. Additionally, IndiGo will take into account any applicable tier-based perks, such as priority check-in and priority baggage, that are provided to Qantas Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Platinum One frequent traveller.
According to Qantas Chief Customer Officer Markus Svensson, passengers have shown the new routes to India to be highly popular. The codeshare agreement with IndiGo, Svensson continued, had enhanced the travel experience for Qantas customers between Australia and India, and the new destinations will provide them with even more choices.
Eight round-trip flights by Qantas are offered each week to connect passengers from Australia to IndiGo aircraft in India. It operates four round-trip flights per week from Melbourne International (MEL) to Delhi Indira Gandhi International (DEL), and four round-trip flights per week from Sydney Kingsford Smith (SYD) to Bengaluru Kempegowda International (BLR).
On Wednesday, flight QF67, which operates the Sydney-Bengaluru route, took off from SYD at 10:06 and arrived in BLR at 15:39. The 12-year-old Airbus A330-202, bearing the registrations VH-EBO and MSN 1169, took off from Bengaluru at 18:01 and touched down in Sydney at 10:22 the following day, according to Flightradar24.com.
The new IndiGo codeshare locations announced by Qantas were Guwahati, Indore, Chandigarh, Mangalore, Jaipur, Nagpur, Thiruvananthapuram, and Visakhapatnam.
The places that were already approved are Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bengaluru, Delhi, Goa, Mumbai, Kochi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Patna, and Pune.
