India’s national carrier, Air India signed a code share agreement with Turkish Airlines that will allow TK’s passengers taking flights to India connect to Air India flights on the Hyderabad, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkata and Amritsar routes.
Air India (AI) has signed a Free Sale Codeshare Agreement with Turkish Airlines (TK). This new agreement follows their previous blocked space code share agreement.
The new accord will enable both the carriers to market each other’s flights by their own code and flight numbers on a free sale basis.
While Air India is India’s national airline, Turkish Airlines is the flag carrier of Turkey.
Operational from March 1, 2012, the new agreement will permit Turkish Airlines’ passengers who are taking flights to India to take advantage of seamless connection to Air India operated flights on Hyderabad, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Amritsar routes.
Speaking on the occasion Mr. Adnan Aykac, General Manager, Northern and Eastern India, Turkish Airlines said: “We are delighted to enter the free sale code share agreement and join forces with Air India to offer our customers world-class gateway to 6 Indian cities.”
“This partnership with Air India is aligned with our plans to further expand and strengthen our presence in this region. We look forward to working with Air India and providing even more travel options for our customers,” Mr. Adnan Aykac was further quoted as saying.
Turkish Airlines, one of the fastest growing airlines in Europe, currently runs 14 weekly flights to Istanbul from Delhi and Mumbai. The airline is also planning to initiate new flights to key India cities in the near future, as per the sources. TK hopes to make the most of the potential in the aviation sector of the region.
It remains to be seen whether the new pact between these two carriers points towards any sort of privileges and deals for travellers like relative cheap flights to India later on.
