Mumbai: Air India and Singapore Airlines (SIA) signed a commercial cooperation framework agreement, to deepen their long-standing partnership through definitive joint business agreements. This strengthened collaboration is expected to allow the airlines to explore ways to improve connectivity between Singapore and India.
The agreement was signed in Mumbai on Friday by Air India chief executive officer and managing director, Campbell Wilson, and SIA chief executive officer Goh Choon Phong.
The airlines aim to expand and enhance the product and service offerings, enabling seamless connections and more route options, and allowing customers to book flights across both airlines under a single unified journey. According to SIA, this partnership also envisages a closer coordination of flight schedules between Air India and SIA to improve convenience for customers.
The collaboration could also expand to include greater cross-participation in the airlines’ corporate travel programmes to improve offerings to business travellers. The airlines will explore plans to progressively enhance privileges beyond the current Star Alliance benefits for members of Air India’s Maharaja Club and SIA’s KrisFlyer frequent flyer programmes.
Air India and SIA also plan to explore opportunities to broaden the scope of their cooperation in select markets, beyond Singapore and India to meet the growing demand for global connectivity, support traffic flow through both carriers’ hubs, and strengthen the air travel markets of both India and Singapore.
As of today, the airlines codeshare on 61 points in 20 countries and territories, followed by the October 2024 expansion of their codeshare partnership, which added 51 international and domestic destinations across both networks.
Wilson said, “Air India remains committed to expanding its global footprint, both by adding new aircraft to our own fleet and by forging stronger commercial partnerships, especially with our fellow Star Alliance member carriers. We are pleased to take our valued, long-term relationship with Singapore Airlines to the next level through this new commercial cooperation understanding, which establishes a clear and structured platform for both airlines to explore and define future areas of closer collaboration.”
Phong said, “This agreement is a natural evolution of our successful partnership, creating genuine value and delivering enhanced benefits to customers. It is a strategic, win-win collaboration that will strengthen connectivity between Singapore and India, support the growth of air travel and tourism in both countries, and deepen their long-standing business and people-to-people ties.”
