Vistara and Lufthansa sign codeshare pact where passengers earn miles on both networks

The German airline Lufthansa and India-Singapore airline Vistara have inked a new business pact to further strengthen their existing partnership. The new codeshare agreement will have the airlines sharing their designator codes to allow passengers to earn miles/points while flying on each other’s networks and avail other benefits.

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Lufthansa will be adding its signature code ‘LH’ to 18 Vistara-operated daily flights -- covering 10 Indian cities which include New Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Goa, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Kochi, Mumbai, and Pune as part of the codeshare agreement.

Vistara Airlines is a joint venture between Tata Sons Limited and Singapore Airlines Limited (SIA). It operates over 200 flights a day, owning 27 Airbus A320 and 9 Boeing 737-800NG aircraft. The premium airline connects 34 cities and has flown more than 19 million customers in South Asia since its inception.

Vistara’s chief strategy officer, Vinod Kannan told a news organization, “As a growing global carrier, one of our key goals is to offer an extended international network to our customers through such strategic associations. Our codeshare with Lufthansa is another important step in this direction and helps us widen our customer base outside of India."

George Ettiyil, senior director sales for the Lufthansa Group Airlines in South Asia added, “This marks Lufthansa’s commitment to offering its Indian customers world-class international travel experiences and enabling them to use their preferred mileage program on codeshare routes. By teaming up with Vistara we will strengthen and expand our position as the leading and most popular European airline in India – a country all set to become the third-largest aviation market in just a few years,”

The airlines’ interline partnership is a ‘through check-in agreement’ through which customers can unerringly connect from Vistara-operated domestic flights in India to Lufthansa-operated flights in Frankfurt, Munich and beyond.

The through check-in facility allows customers to get their boarding passes at the departure point, for both domestic and international travels, while their baggage is checked through to the final destination.

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