United-Vistara codeshare comes into effect

United Airlines and Vistara are set to start a new codeshare agreement that enables United to put its ‘UA’ designator code on 68 Vistara-operated flights across India.

The codeshare comes into effect on Feb. 28 and covers flights to destinations including Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bengaluru, Goa, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, Pune and Srinagar. The two airlines signed the agreement in June 2019.

“We are excited to offer our shared customers the option of building a seamless itinerary when planning travel to cities beyond New Delhi and Mumbai,” United's senior vice president of alliances John Gebo said.

“United has connected customers to India for more than 15 years with daily flights between New York/Newark and Delhi and Mumbai and our new service between San Francisco and New Delhi.”

United began service to India in 2005, offering passengers year-round daily nonstop flights from Newark to Mumbai and Delhi. In December 2019, it launched daily seasonal flights between San Francisco and Delhi using Boeing 787-9.

Vistara chief commercial officer Vinod Kannan said: “The US continues to be one of the biggest source markets for foreign travelers into India and the region, and this partnership allows us to provide a seamless travel offering for customers to and from the US.”

According to data from OAG Schedules Analyser (w/c Feb. 17, 2020), three carriers serve the US-India market nonstop. In addition to United’s service, Delta Air Lines connects New York JFK and Mumbai daily. Air India also operates five routes, flying daily from Delhi to New York JFK and Chicago O’Hare as well as Mumbai to Newark, along with 9X-weekly service to San Francisco and 3X-weekly to Washington Dulles.

David Casey

David Casey is Editor in Chief of Routes, the global route development community's trusted source for news and information.