A-I, Kenya Airways enter into codeshare partnership as part of expansion

Air India has entered into a codeshare partnership with Kenya Airways as the Tata Group-owned airline seeks to expand as well as provide more travel choices for passengers.

Both airlines will also continue to have their interline partnership.

As part of the codeshare pact, Air India will place its 'AI' designator code on twice daily flights between Nairobi and Mumbai operated by Kenya Airways. This will allow passengers to take Air India flights via Mumbai to or from Bangkok (Thailand), Colombo (Sri Lanka), Dhaka (Bangladesh), Mal (The Maldives), Melbourne (Australia), and Singapore, according to a release on Thursday.

The codeshare partnership will also enable Kenya Airways to place its 'KQ' designator code on Air India-operated flights between Delhi and Nairobi.

Both airlines plan to progressively add other destinations in their networks to the codeshare pact, Air India said in the release.

Currently, Air India has 16 codeshare and around 100 interline agreements with various airlines.

"Deepening our partnership with Kenya Airways aligns perfectly with Air India's strategic vision of expanding our global footprint and strengthening our position in key markets," Air India's Chief Commercial Officer Nipun Aggarwal said.

Generally, a codeshare partnership allows an airline to book its passengers on its partner carrier and there will be a single ticket. Under an interline arrangement, an airline issues and accepts tickets for flights operated by the partner carrier and the passenger will have a single itinerary but different tickets.

The interline agreement between Air India and Kenya Airways enables passengers to travel on a single itinerary between any of 28 destinations, including Kilimanjaro, Mombasa and Accra, in Africa and any of the 15 places in India.