AIR India has signed a codeshare agreement with South Korea’s Asiana Airlines, and is in the process of finalising similar deals with Egypt Air and Air China.

Air India’s partnership with Asiana, which will see the two airlines integrating their frequent flier programmes on the codeshare routes, is part of the Indian flag carrier’s ongoing recovery efforts, and follows recent government approval of its financial restructuring plan (TTG Asia e-Daily, April 27, 2012).

Jatinder Gupta, partner, Dove Travels Amritsar said: “Air India’s codeshare flights with foreign carriers to important destinations will increase traffic for both Indian inbound and outbound markets. Increased connectivity to Seoul is good for the trade, but now Air India needs to grow capacity on important routes.”

Air India currently has codeshare arrangements with 12 other airlines including Swiss Air, Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa, South African Airways, Kuwait Airways, Air Mauritius, Austrian Airlines, Aeroflot, Sri Lankan Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines, British Midland and Turkish Airlines.