Singapore Airlines and Virgin Australia will expand their codeshare agreement to cover further destinations in Australia, Asia, Europe and the UK.
The arrangement will be extended to all of Virgin Australia’s domestic destinations with immediate effect, giving Singapore Airlines' customers access to 32 Australian cities. Trans-Tasman services are expected to join the agreement in the coming months, subject to regulatory approval.
In addition, from the first quarter of 2013, Virgin Australia will place its code on Singapore Airlines' services from the east coast of Australia to Europe, the UK and additional cities in Asia via the airline’s Singapore hub.
Virgin group executive alliances Merren McArthur said the codeshare responded to growing demand from customers for onwards travel 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,” she said.
McArthur also welcomed the placing of the SQ code on Virgin’s domestic services as a major driver for inbound tourism.
Meanwhile, Singapore Airlines executive vice president commercial, Mak Swee Wah, described the move as a “major step” in the strengthening of the relationship between the two carriers.
