India’s largest airline IndiGo and British airline Virgin Atlantic announced a codeshare agreement on August 31, allowing them to sell seats on each other’s flights. The arrangement will take effect from September 27.

The codeshare partnership means customers booking Virgin Atlantic tickets can fly to Delhi and Mumbai on the airline’s London Heathrow flights and connect to seven additional cities in India, the airlines said in a joint statement.
Juha Jarvinen, the airline’s chief commercial officer, said India is Virgin Atlantic’s third-largest market.

Code sharing will be rolled out in stages. The first phase will have nine destinations – Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Goa, Delhi and Mumbai – connectable on IndiGo.

Later this year, the agreement will be expanded to cover 16 destinations in India and Virgin Atlantic’s vast US network operating through London’s Heathrow Airport.

The second phase will include connecting Kochi, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Pune, Coimbatore, Nagpur, Baroda, Indore and Visakhapatnam.

As part of the codeshare, Virgin Atlantic will also offer its customers a free shuttle service between different terminals at Delhi Airport.

IndiGo already has codeshare agreements with Air France-KLM, Turkish Airlines, Qatar Airways, American Airlines and Qantas.