Emirates, Spicejet ink code sharing pact
dubai — A codeshare agreement signed by Emirates airlines and SpiceJet, India’s second-largest airline, is set to open new routes, offer more destinations and better fare options for passengers hit by travel disruptions in the wake of the grounding of Jet Airways.
The codeshare will primarily cover Emirates’ 170 weekly flights between India and Dubai and SpiceJet’s 68 weekly non-stop flights between various stops from India to Dubai.
The arrangement will benefit passengers of both airlines by enabling them to enjoy seamless connectivity. Passengers travelling from India will have more choice with minimum connection times, when flying to destinations in Emirates’ Europe network such as London, Paris, Frankfurt, Manchester and Amsterdam.
Optimised scheduling will allow for minimal transit times between India and these global destinations and travellers on these codeshare routes will be able to book connecting flights using a single reservation,
both airlines said in a statement.
SpiceJet passengers travelling from Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Kochi, Amritsar, Jaipur, Pune, Mangalore, Madurai, Kozhikode and 41 other domestic destinations that the airline operates to, will be able to access Emirates’ expansive network across the globe. They will also be able to leverage Emirates vast network across Africa, America and the Middle East, while Emirates passengers will be able to ensure easier connectivity to more than 50 destinations on Indian carrier’s domestic network after regulatory approvals are in place.
Emirates will also benefit from six
new non-stop destinations from Dubai operated by SpiceJet: Amritsar, Jaipur, Pune, Mangalore, Madurai and Calicut which aren’t served by Emirates. Calicut is served by Emirates’ another partner airline, flydubai. Apart from the non-stop flights, Emirates will put its EK code on SpiceJet’s domestic flights covering 51 destinations in India.
Analysts said the codesharing agreement is a strategic move as it would help Emirates overcome seat quota curbs following Indian aviation ministry’s 2017 decision against negotiating with Dubai on increasing bilateral flying rights. As per the current India-Dubai bilateral air traffic quota agreement, airlines from each side are allowed to operate 65,000 seats per week, a quota that has been exhausted. While Dubai had sought an increase of 50,000 seats, Indian authorities had sought preferential treatment in slot allocation for Indian carriers at Dubai airport.
Saj Ahmad, an analyst at London’s StrategicAero Research, said Emirates’ expansion has been stifled in India given the challenging and ageing aviation policy in play there. “Expansion is limited, so this pact with SpiceJet will allow Emirates to tap into those parts of the country it doesn’t serve itself,” he said.
Similarly, SpiceJet customers can connect on Emirates intercontinental network and can cover up demise of Jet Airways.