The announcement, made on November 20, 2012, said that Code-sharing has been extended with immediate effect to all of Virgin Australia’s domestic destinations, offering Singapore Airlines customers access to 32 Australian cities.
Singapore Airlines also intends to further expand code-sharing in the coming months to include Trans-Tasman flights between Australia and the New Zealand cities of Dunedin, Queenstown and Wellington, subject to regulatory approval.
Better options
Singapore Airlines New Zealand General Manager Edwin Chiang described the new agreement with Virgin Australia as ‘Great.’
“It delivers to customers our promise of continually providing more travel options, better flight connections and frequent-flyer programme benefits.
“And adding Trans-Tasman code-sharing into Dunedin, Queenstown and Wellington is a testament to our on-going commitment to the region,” he said.
In the first quarter of 2013, Virgin Australia will in turn extend its current codeshare with Singapore Airlines to cover connections from the East Coast of Australia to Europe and UK, and additional cities in Asia, via Singapore Airlines’ hub in Singapore.
More destinations
Virgin Australia currently codeshares on Singapore Airlines flights to Europe from Adelaide, Perth and Darwin. Its customers will now have access to 64 destinations in Asia and 12 destinations in Europe on the Singapore Airlines and SilkAir networks from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Darwin.
Singapore Airlines Executive Vice President Commercial, Mak Swee Wah said that the codeshare expansion is a major step forward in deepening partnership with Virgin Australia.
“With more cities covered, Singapore Airlines and Virgin Australia can together offer even better connections for customers between Singapore and Australia, and through our Singapore hub to many more points around the world,” he said.
Virgin Australia Group Executive of Alliances, Network and Yield, Merren McArthur said, “There is strong demand from our customers to be able to travel onwards from Asia to Europe. We currently offer this option to customers from Adelaide, Perth and Darwin, and the latest announcement will see this expanded to include the East Coast of Australia.
“We also welcome the expansion of Singapore Airlines’ codeshare on our domestic services as it will help to promote tourism in Australia.”
Extensive partnership
Singapore Airlines and Virgin Australia entered into a wide-ranging partnership last year. In addition to code-sharing, the alliance covers reciprocal frequent-flyer programme benefits and lounge access, coordinated schedules to provide seamless connections, and joint sales, marketing and distribution activities.
Singapore Airlines and its subsidiary SilkAir serve 97 destinations in 36 countries across six continents. Virgin Australia serves 49 destinations in 14 countries.
Singapore Airlines was the sponsor of the ‘Business Excellence in Innovation’ category of the Indian Newslink Indian Business Awards 2012. The airline also flew Gopalkrishna Gandhi, former Governor of the Indian State of West Bengal and grandson of Mahatma Gandhi to Auckland (by courtesy of BNZ Partners) to attend as a Guest of Honour the Indian Newslink Indian Business Awards 2012 Ceremony held at the Sky City Convention Centre on November 19, 2012
