NARASIMHAN KASTURI
SAN FRANCISCO, SEP 29
American Airlines (AA) announced a code-sharing agreement with India’s largest airline IndiGo on Tuesday, with the US airline gearing up to launch new flights between the two countries.
The agreement, which is expected to begin in October, will see American’s “code” on 29 of IndiGo’s domestic routes in India.
Code-sharing allows an airline to sell seats on a flight operated by its partner, so that it can fly passengers to destinations it does not serve.
The pact with IndiGo airlines, which is India’s largest airline by number of passengers carried and owned by InterGlobe Aviation, requires approval of US and Indian authorities, American said.
The company is launching a new service between New York and India’s capital New Delhi next month and between Seattle and the city of Bengaluru early next year.
The pandemic continues to stymie the aviation industry and American Airlines’ is not an exception. It has to postpone its long-haul expansion.
Recently, the Fort Worth-based carrier postponed two of its newest and highest-profile routes: Seattle (SEA) to Bangalore (BLR) and Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) to Tel Aviv (TLV). Both flights are now slated to commence on January 4, and 6, respectively, according to Cirium schedules and confirmed by the airline.
In a statement shared with TPG, an American Airlines spokesperson wrote: “This weekend we pushed back the launch of our Dallas-Fort Worth-Tel Aviv (DFW-TLV) and Seattle-Bengaluru, India (SEA-BLR), routes until January 4. These delays are due to continued entry restrictions into Israel and the slower-than-expected return of international business travel. American is fully-committed to Israel and India – we currently serve TLV from our Miami (MIA) and New York (JFK) hubs, and we’ll begin service from JFK to New Delhi (DEL) on October 31.”
American first announced in February 2020, its 8,078-mile route that would return the carrier to India for the first time since 2012. It was originally going to take off in October 2020, but the pandemic delayed it by a year. The Bangalore flight will be operated daily by a 285-seat Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner.
Though Seattle isn’t an AA hub, it is for one of AA’s domestic partners, Alaska Airlines. As part of a new West Coast International Alliance between the two carriers, Seattle would become an “international gateway” with Alaska feeding connecting passengers to American’s new long-haul flights from SEA.
While that partnership has since commenced (and Alaska joined the Oneworld airline alliance), the flagship Bangalore route, which will heavily rely on business travelers, isn’t ready to take off. (AA announced a second new long-haul route from Seattle, to London/Heathrow (LHR), at the same time as the BLR route. LHR flights launched as planned on March 30.)
Incidentally, earlier this year AA unveiled a second new India flight, from New York-JFK to New Delhi (DEL). This one was announced in conjunction with the airline’s Northeast Alliance with JetBlue Airways and is still on track. In fact, it was recently upgauged to AA’s flagship Boeing 777-300ER aircraft that features both a first- and business-class cabin.
If everything goes according to plan, New Delhi will now represent AA’s first foray in India in nearly a decade.
