Tata-owned Air India has established an interline partnership with Alaska Airlines (AS) under which Air India passengers will be able to avail seamless connections to and from 32 destinations across US, Mexico, and Canada, a report on CNBC TV18 said.
Some of the prominent destinations within the network of Alaska Airlines are New York JFK, Newark-New Jersey, Washington DC, Chicago, San Francisco, Vancouver, and others.
The agreement encompasses bilateral interlining, enabling both airlines to offer tickets for travel on each other’s networks.
Besides this, the two airlines have agreed upon a Special Prorate Agreement, under which Air India will be allowed to offer ‘through fares’ for routes covering Alaska Airlines’ network. A Through Fare is the fare charged from the point of boarding to a destination that is not on the current route.
At present, Air India operates 47 non-stop flights per week, which connect Delhi, Bengaluru, and Mumbai to five major US cities — New York, Newark, Washington DC, Chicago, and San Francisco.
Read More: SpiceJet announces addition of 44 flights during winter schedule
On Friday, Air India CEO and managing director Campbell Wilson said the airline will introduce over 400 new weekly flights during the upcoming winter season, with approximately 50 per cent of the flights serving international destinations.
In an internal communication to the employees, Wilson said the northern winter 2023 schedule will see it take deliveries of more than 30 new aircraft and add more than 400 weekly flights. “We (Air India) have just entered the northern winter 2023 schedule, which will see us take deliveries of more than 30 new aircraft and add more than 400 weekly flights. Around 200 of these new flights will be on international routes, adding frequencies and connecting new city pairs between India and North America, Europe, and Southeast Asia,” Wilson wrote in the mail, which was reviewed by Business Standard.
At present, the airline runs approximately 2,900 weekly flights, with roughly 32 per cent dedicated to international routes, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium’s data.
Read More: Air India to add over 400 weekly flights to domestic, international routes by March 2024
“We are also hoping to launch four new international stations in the next few months, of which we will share more details in due course, as well as more interline partnerships. On the latter, our latest partner is Alaska Airlines, which will help expand our connectivity to multiple destinations in the US, Mexico, and Canada,” Wilson noted.
As per the Winter Schedule 2023, the airline claims that it has ramped up frequency by 25x weekly flights (each way) on eight international routes across points in Southeast Asia, United States, and Europe.
This includes the weekly frequencies on Mumbai-Singapore increasing from 7x to 13x, Delhi-Bangkok from 7x to 14x, Delhi-Dhaka from 7x to 12x, Delhi-Newark (New Jersey) from 3x to 4x, Delhi-San Francisco from 10x to 11x, Delhi-Washington D.C. from 3x to 4x, Delhi-Copenhagen from 3x to 4x, Delhi-Milan from 4x to 5x, Mumbai-Doha from 7x to 9x.Air India has also opened flights on four new routes, including Bengaluru-Singapore, Kochi-Doha, Kolkata-Bangkok, and Mumbai-Melbourne.
The company recently announced that it is starting flights on Bengaluru-Melbourne, Mumbai-Melbourne, Kochi-Doha and Kolkata-Bangkok routes.
