Here’s our weekly roundup of new air routes and codeshare partnerships
Air Astana connects Kazakhstan’s Atyrau with Georgia’s Tbilisi
Air Astana will launch direct flights from Atyrau in Westen Kazakhstan to Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi on May 27, with the service operating three times a week on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays using Airbus family aircraft. The airline already offers scheduled flights from Atyrau to Istanbul, Dubai and Amsterdam.
Round-trip fares, inclusive of all taxes and fees, start from US$213 in Economy Class and from US$587 in Business Class.
The launch of the new route will bring the summer schedule frequency to Tbilisi up to 15 weekly flights, with departures from three cities in Kazakhstan: nine flights per week from Almaty and three weekly flights each from Astana and Atyrau.
Air India, Lufthansa Group expand codeshare arrangements
Air India and Lufthansa Group have agreed to build on their longstanding codeshare partnership, which sees Air India enter into a new codeshare agreement with Austrian Airlines, as well as expand the existing codeshare agreements between Air India, Lufthansa, and Swiss International Air Lines.
The expanded partnership significantly boosts flight options and connectivity for travellers between the Indian subcontinent and Europe with the addition of close to 60 codeshare routes operated by the four airlines across 12 Indian and 26 European cities.
Customers of Lufthansa Group will now be able to connect to Air India’s domestic services to or from 15 points within India, namely Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Delhi, Goa Mopa, Goa Dabolim, Hyderabad, Indore, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, and Thiruvananthapuram. Additionally, Lufthansa Group carriers will add their respective designator codes to Air India’s international services to three destinations from Delhi and Mumbai: Kathmandu, Melbourne, and Sydney.
Additionally, flights currently operated by Air India and Lufthansa Group carriers between India and Germany or Switzerland will be covered under the expanded codeshare partnership. For example, customers who wish to fly between Delhi and Frankfurt will now have three daily flight options each way with LH flight numbers, including two flights operated by Air India and one flight operated by Lufthansa.
Reciprocally, Air India will now offer its customers a total of 26 destinations across Europe and three destinations in the Americas beyond its gateways in Europe (Frankfurt, Vienna, and Zurich), with the AI designator code placed on select services operated by airlines in the Lufthansa Group, including Austrian Airlines for the first time.
Both airlines plan to progressively include other destinations in their network to the codeshare arrangements.
Air India and the three Lufthansa Group carriers are members of Star Alliance.
QantasLink set for Perth-Busselton service
QantasLink’s new route between Perth and Busselton will take off from June 27 this year. Operating thrice a week, the new route will boost tourism into the Margaret River region, with more than 31,000 seats between the two destinations each year.
Services will be offered every Monday, Friday and Sunday on the 100-seat QantasLink Fokker F100 aircraft.
