IndiGo, Air France-KLM To Codeshare

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Indian LCC IndiGo has signed a codeshare agreement with Air France-KLM, opening up new destinations for passengers traveling with the Franco-Dutch group.

Under the partnership, Air France and KLM will be able offer their customers access to 25 new points in India. Subject to government approval, the cooperation will start in February 2022.

Air France currently serves four cities in India, flying from Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) to Bengaluru (BLR), Chennai (MAA), Delhi (DEL) and Mumbai (BOM), while KLM serves Delhi and Mumbai from Amsterdam (AMS).

In a statement, the carriers added: “On departure from the Indian provinces, Air France and KLM will open up their global network of over 250 destinations to IndiGo customers, with more than 120 destinations in Europe and about 50 in the Americas.”

According to data provided by OAG Schedules Analyser, IndiGo has fully recovered its domestic network although international capacity is down by more than a half on pre-pandemic levels.

The carrier has 7.9 million domestic seats on offer in December 2021, up from 7.2 million during the same month two years ago. However, international capacity this month is 54% down on December 2019 at 407,000 seats.

The latest figures provided by India’s Director Generate of Civil Aviation show that IndiGo carried 5.7 million passengers across its domestic network in November 2021—a reduction of 7.2% on 2019. Overall, there were 10.5 million domestic air passengers in India during November 2021, down by 32.8% compared with November 2019.

The codeshare agreement with IndiGo is the second signed by Air France and KLM this month. On Dec. 9, the carriers agreed to partner with Alitalia’s successor and new SkyTeam alliance member ITA Airways.

The commercial partnership will open up 12 ITA destinations in Italy and southern Europe for Air France and KLM passengers, whereas ITA customers will be able to book tickets to “a large variety” of Air France and KLM destinations.

David Casey

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