Air India Partners with Kenya Airways for Codeshare, Enhancing Travel Flexibility
Air India has formed a codeshare partnership with Kenya Airways as the Tata Group-owned airline aims to expand and offer more travel options for passengers. The two airlines will also maintain their existing interline partnership.
Air India will place its 'AI' designator code on twice daily flights between Nairobi and Mumbai operated by Kenya Airways as part of the codeshare pact. This will allow passengers to take Air India flights via Mumbai to or from Bangkok (Thailand), Colombo (Sri Lanka), Dhaka (Bangladesh), Male (The Maldives), Melbourne (Australia), and Singapore, according to a release on Thursday.
The codeshare partnership will also enable Kenya Airways to place its 'KQ' designator code on Air India-operated flights between Delhi and Nairobi.
Both airlines plan to progressively add other destinations in their networks to the codeshare pact, Air India said in the release.
Currently, Air India has 16 codeshare and around 100 interline agreements with various airlines.
"Deepening our partnership with Kenya Airways aligns perfectly with Air India's strategic vision of expanding our global footprint and strengthening our position in key markets", Air India's Chief Commercial Officer Nipun Aggarwal said.
A codeshare partnership typically allows an airline to book passengers on a partner carrier's flights under a single ticket. In contrast, an interline agreement enables an airline to issue and accept tickets for flights operated by a partner carrier, resulting in a single itinerary but separate tickets.
The interline agreement between Air India and Kenya Airways allows passengers to travel on a single itinerary across 28 destinations in Africa, including Kilimanjaro, Mombasa, and Accra, as well as 15 locations in India.
