SIA ramps up alliance with Virgin Australia with codeshare flights, Latest Travel News - The New Paper
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SIA ramps up alliance with Virgin Australia with codeshare flights

Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Virgin Australia took their strategic partnership to the next level with the resumption of sale of the Australian carrier’s codeshare flights to a host of destinations on SIA’s network.

Customers can now make bookings on virginaustralia.com for seamless travel between Australia, Asia, Africa, Europe and beyond on SIA flights.

SIA said the move was the next step in returning the carrier’s partnership to pre-pandemic operations, following the resumption of redemption bookings and mileage points conversions for KrisFlyer and Velocity members earlier this year.

While miles and points earned remained unchanged throughout the pandemic, the latest announcement unlocks the full rewards and benefits of the partnership for customers as demand for international travel continues to improve.

The two airlines formed their strategic partnership in 2011, and extended this agreement for a further five years in 2022. The partnership enabled travellers to access a multitude of destinations across both airlines’ networks seamlessly.

Virgin Australia will codeshare on 42 destinations covering 33 countries on SIA’s network, including Ho Chi Minh City, Seoul, Amsterdam, Copenhagen. Paris, London, Jakarta as well as SIA’s home base, Singapore. Meanwhile, SIA continues to offer codeshare flights on 64 routes covering 31 destinations on Virgin Australia’s domestic and international network, including Queenstown in Australia.

Singapore Airlines has been operating to Australia since April 1967 and has grown its operations from a once weekly service to Perth and Sydney, to become the largest foreign carrier (excluding trans-Tasman airlines) to operate to Australia by schedule and capacity.

Compared to pre-Covid, SIA is now operating about 68 per cent of its pre-Covid schedule to Australia. Together with Scoot, the group currently operates about 73 per cent of the pre-Covid schedule. Capacity wise in the Australia market, SIA is at around 78 per capacity of pre-Covid capacity, while the group is at about 83 per cent of pre-Covid capacity.

Its current schedule comprises 111 weekly flights to seven Australian cities. This includes 28 flights a week each to Sydney and Melbourne, and 21 flights a week to Brisbane and Perth respectively. Founded by Richard Branson, Virgin Australia is now one of Australia’s largest airlines, employing over 7,000 people and operating both domestic and international services.

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