IndiGo, India’s biggest airline by fleet and market share, has fixed its highlights on the profitable US market over an existing codeshare with Turkish Airlines. In a filing by Turkish Airlines and IndiGo with the US Department of Transport, the nodal action for such filing and endorsements, the airlines asked for accelerated application sanction, a typical practice for such cases.

IndiGo can sell airlifts to Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Dallas-Fort Worth, San Francisco, Miami, New York, Newark, Seattle, and Washington DC, when acknowledged. A codeshare contract is an arrangement between airlines that allows passengers to flawlessly transfer from one operator’s flight to another by using a similar flight number. Indigo’s contestant Air India has non-stop flights to Newark, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, DC.

IndiGo, underway a codeshare with Turkish Airlines in 2019, went from strength to strength after the contagion. After initially beginning with 20 destinations, the plan has progressively seen growth to more endpoints within Europe, and this filing displays how the eyes are usually on a bigger expansion.

IndiGo started functioning a Turkish damp-leased B777 in Delhi and Istanbul beginning February 1, giving it an enormous boost in aptitude. Turkish Airlines sells business class on these flights exclusively, while both airlines sell economy class. When accepted, the Turkish Airlines flights to 12 destinations in the US will also have a “6E” code on the airlifts and will be the first time that IndiGo flight numbers will be registered at airports in the US.

The clearance calls explicitly for placing the “6E” code on certain flights between Turkey and the US to cater for IndiGo’s India-US traffic. While the application calls for full approval for all future locations, it starts by explicitly mentioning a dozen destinations. The airline wants to start as soon as possible, as they have applied for a 45-day waiting period waiver for this request. The application specifies the transportation of persons, goods and mail. The IndiGo code can be seen on FIDS (Flight Information Display System) at US airports when operational.

IndiGo has been gradually expanding its Turkish codeshare. Still, America matters, and it comes at a time of major changes in the comfort of its Delhi-to-Istanbul service simply because of the deployment of Turkish Airlines B777s on wet leases. Also, the longer leg of the trip to the US will fly Turkish Airlines, which comes with all the requisite trappings of a full-service airline. With Air India rapidly expanding and every other airline vying for the growing market between India and the US, any incremental passengers IndiGo can poach through its own bookings will be total revenue.

This may not impact Air India, which has become its USP with non-stop flights to the US, especially when Russian airspace is closed to US airlines, giving Air India an unprecedented advantage. However, India-US traffic is an ocean, with passengers trying to connect from every possible region and option, and IndiGo, at best, watching salami cut into this lucrative pie.