Qatar Airways, Vistara to accept each other's tickets to 150 countries

Persian gulf carrier Qatar Airways today entered into an interline partnership with Vistara, under which customers of the two carriers will have seamless travel to and from India to over 150 destinations.

The partnership is effective from Monday, Qatar Airways said.

Qatar Airways currently operates to 13 cities in India from its Doha hub while the Tata-SIA run joint venture airline Vistara operates to 18 domestic destinations.

An interline arrangement refers to a pact to issue and accept tickets for flights that are operated by the partner airline. When selling an interline ticket, the operating airline's own flight numbers are used.

Interline partnership allows Qatar Airways' passengers to travel seamlessly to and from a wide range of cities within India across Vistara's network, via Qatar Airways' existing 13 Indian gateways and under a single ticket, the Gulf carrier said in a release.

"This exciting new partnership with Vistara will bring enhanced connectivity and increased convenience to our passengers travelling within India on an expanding full-service premium carrier. The Indian market is very important to us. This new partnership expands Qatar Airways' presence in India and reinforces our commitment to this market," Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker said.

Qatar Airways in the past had initiated talks with Indian budget carrier IndiGo for a marketing tie-up, which later failed to yield any results.

"We are delighted to launch our interline partnership with Qatar Airways, through which we will offer a seamless flying experience and international luggage allowance to our joint customers from various cities in India to and from over 150 destinations across the world on a single ticket," Vistara Chief Executive Officer Phee Teik Yeoh said on the partnership.

Qatar Airways operates services from Doha to New Delhi, Kochi, Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Kozhikode, Kolkata, Goa, Hyderabad, Chennai, Nagpur and Thiruvananthapuram in India.