MUMBAI: Full service airline Vistara and Persian Gulf carrier Qatar Airways have entered into an interline partnership wherein they will provide "through check-in" facility to customers for seamless travel.
Qatar Airways currently operates in 13 cities in India from its Doha hub, while the Tata-SIA run joint venture airline Vistara operates in 19 domestic destinations.
The partnership is effective from today, Qatar Airways said.
An interline arrangement refers to a pact to issue and accept tickets for flights that are operated by the partner airline. When selling an interline ticket, the operating airline's own flight numbers are used.
Under the partnership, passengers of Qatar Airways can travel seamlessly on Vistara's domestic flights to and from the Persian Gulf carrier's global network.
"Together the two airlines will provide the 'through check-in' facility, enabling customers to get their boarding passes at the first point of departure for all the travel sectors, both domestic and international, and have their baggage checked-in through to their final destination," the carriers said in separate but similarly-worded releases.
Vistara CEO Phee Teik Yeoh said through the partnership, a seamless flying experience and international luggage allowance would be offered for joint customers from various Indian cities to and from over 150 destinations worldwide on a single ticket.
"This exciting new partnership with Vistara would bring enhanced connectivity and increased convenience to our passengers travelling within India on an expanding full- service premium carrier," Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker said.
"The Indian market is very important to us. This new partnership expands Qatar Airways' presence in India and reinforces our commitment to this market," he added.
Qatar Airways in the past had initiated talks with Indian budget carrier IndiGo for a marketing tie-up, which later failed to yield any results.
The Qatar-based airline operates from Doha to New Delhi, Kochi, Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Kozhikode, Kolkata, Goa, Chennai, Nagpur, Thiruvananthapuram and Hyderabad in India.
Already, Vistara has interline/through check-in agreements with various carriers, including Air France, KLM, Japan Airlines, All Nippon Airways (ANA), British Airways and Finnair.
The domestic airline also has code share partnerships with Singapore Airlines and SilkAir, as per release issued by Vistara.