New airline partnership set to boost Indian services from Birmingham
FLIGHT connections serving India are to be made more accessible to passengers using Birmingham Airport as part of a new collaboration agreement between Flybe and Air India.
The codeshare partnership with the Indian flag carrier will enable travellers using Flybe’s services to Birmingham from Belfast City, Edinburgh and Glasgow to connect onto Air India’s daily flight to New Delhi.
Under the agreement, Air India will place its marketing code on the Flybe flights.
Saad Hammad, Flybe’s CEO said: “Our new codeshare agreement with Air India is another exciting development for Flybe. It further strengthens our ability to connect our regional customers to long-haul destinations with our ‘One Stop to the World’ proposition.
“We can now give customers in the UK regions convenient access to the Indian subcontinent through Birmingham Airport. This relieves them of the need to undertake long road or rail journeys to and from the UK’s congested south east hub airports. It will also boost local economies by encouraging inbound travel from South East Asia.”
Seats will be available for booking via the Air India website or through local travel agents from May 10, with travel effective from June 1, 2016.
The agreement builds on Flybe’s other codeshare partnerships with airlines including Aer Lingus, Air France, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Emirates, Etihad, Finnair, KLM and Virgin Atlantic.
Flybe signed a codeshare agreement with Virgin Atlantic in March, giving travellers the opportunity to fly from 18 UK and European airports served by Flybe, connecting onto a Virgin Atlantic flight at Manchester, Glasgow and London Gatwick.
The demand for forward bookings has exceeded early expectations, with the most popular routes being for connections to Orlando via Manchester using Flybe services from Aberdeen, Amsterdam, Belfast City, Edinburgh and Paris Charles de Gaulle as well as to Las Vegas from Belfast City and Paris, and from Edinburgh through to Atlanta.
