Air India restores codeshare pact with Air Canada after five-year pause

Air India on Saturday announced that it has reinstated its codeshare partnership with Air Canada, more than five years after the agreement was suspended during the coronavirus pandemic.

The renewed arrangement will allow Air India to offer passengers access to six points across Canada beyond its gateways at Vancouver and London Heathrow. A codeshare partnership allows passengers to travel on a single ticket across flights operated by different airlines.

Under the reinstated agreement, Air India will place its ‘AI’ designator code on Air Canada-operated flights on routes from Vancouver to Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Montréal and Halifax, and from London Heathrow to Vancouver and Calgary.

“Reciprocally, Air Canada customers will benefit from seamless domestic India connectivity to Amritsar, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Kochi via Delhi, and to Delhi and Mumbai via London (Heathrow),” a release said.

This is currently Air India’s only codeshare partnership with a North American carrier. The airline had suspended all such partnerships during the pandemic, when it was still under government ownership.

Air India now has 23 codeshare partners and 96 interline partners.