Singapore Airlines and Virgin Australia Codeshare Expansion

20 November 2012

Singapore Airlines and Virgin Australia Announce Codeshare Expansion

SINGAPORE, SYDNEY AND AUCKLAND: Singapore Airlines and Virgin Australia today announced the expansion of their codeshare agreement to cover further destinations in New Zealand, Australia, Asia, and Europe and the United Kingdom.

Codesharing has been extended with immediate effect to all of Virgin Australia’s domestic destinations, offering Singapore Airlines customers access to 32 Australian cities. Singapore Airlines also intends to further expand codesharing in the coming months to include trans-Tasman flights between Australia and the New Zealand cities of Dunedin, Queenstown and Wellington, subject to regulatory approval.

In the first quarter of 2013, Virgin Australia will in turn extend its current codeshare with Singapore Airlines to cover connections from the East Coast of Australia to Europe and the United Kingdom and additional cities in Asia, via Singapore Airlines’ hub in Singapore. Virgin Australia currently codeshares on Singapore Airlines flights to Europe from Adelaide, Perth and Darwin. In total, Virgin Australia customers will now have access to 64 destinations in Asia and 12 destinations1 in Europe on the Singapore Airlines and SilkAir networks from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Darwin.

“This codeshare expansion is a major step forward in our deepening partnership. With more cities covered, Singapore Airlines and Virgin Australia can together offer even better connections for our customers between Singapore and Australia, as well as through our Singapore hub to many more points around the world,” said Singapore Airlines Executive Vice President Commercial, Mr Mak Swee Wah.

Virgin Australia Group Executive of Alliances, Network and Yield, Ms Merren McArthur, said: “There is strong demand from our customers to be able to travel onwards from Asia to Europe. We currently offer this option to customers from Adelaide, Perth and Darwin, and today’s announcement will see this expanded to include the East Coast of Australia. We also welcome the expansion of Singapore Airlines’ codeshare on our domestic services as it will help to promote tourism in Australia.”

Singapore Airlines and Virgin Australia entered into a wide-ranging partnership last year. In addition to codesharing, the alliance covers reciprocal frequent-flyer programme benefits and lounge access, coordinated schedules to provide seamless connections, and joint sales, marketing and distribution activities.

Singapore Airlines and subsidiary SilkAir together serve 97 destinations in 36 countries across six continents. Virgin Australia serves 49 destinations in 14 countries.

Note 1: Subject to regulatory approval – interline and codeshare destinations included in total destinations.

ENDS

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