Jet Airways, Kingfisher plan code sharing on domestic routes

Mumbai: Six months after announcing the biggest operational alliance in India's aviation sector, Jet Airways (India) Ltd and Kingfisher Airlines Ltd have agreed to initiate code-share on certain flights on the domestic route.
The two airlines together are the country's biggest private airlines by passengers carried and expect code sharing to garner more passenger traffic on their flights. Code sharing is a commercial agreement between airlines in which they can mutually use their two-letter identification code to book flights and sell seats under its own name on another carrier's flight. This helps airlines get a larger network using fewer flights and potentially fly different legs of a journey by issuing a single ticket.
Saroj K Datta, executive director, Jet Airways, told DNA, "We have drawn a plan on code sharing between the two airlines and will be submitting the proposal to the government shortly for approval."
Airlines planning to enter into passenger sharing alliances need to take approvals from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). Jet and Kingfisher will code share on domestic routes now and international routes would be reviewed later, Datta said. However, he denied commenting on the number of flights under consideration.
Kingfisher Airlines, in a statement, said, "We are in discussions with Jet Airways on code sharing certain routes and will be launching such flights shortly."
Datta said, "Code sharing will not result in any savings or profits, but will generate more traffic for both the parties."
Airlines are grappling with falling passenger numbers and the domestic airlines are likely to report combined losses of $2 billion, according to industry estimates. The air traffic during the first quarter of the current calendar year also slipped 12% as local carriers flew 13.68 lakh fewer passengers compared with the first quarter of last year.
28/05/09 Daily News & Analysis

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Categories: Jet Airways May 2009, Kingfisher May 2009