Emirates and SpiceJet first talked about a codeshare agreement back in April 2019, when they signed a Memorandum of Understanding to have a codeshare on each other’s flights. The SpiceJet – Emirates codeshare, was intended to primarily cover SpiceJet’s 68 weekly non-stop flights between various stops from India to Dubai and Emirates’ 170 weekly flights between India and Dubai.

As a part of the codeshare agreement, SpiceJet was to place its SG code on flights operated by Emirates to India, Europe, Africa, America and the Middle East. SpiceJet had emphasised that there will be minimum connection times when flying to destinations such as London, Paris, Frankfurt, Manchester and Amsterdam from Dubai. All the above destinations, except, Frankfurt were served non-stop from India by Jet Airways.

Further, the codeshare would expand to flights operated by Emirates to New York, Washington, Toronto, Sao Paulo, Jeddah, Kuwait and Amman apart from other destinations after regulatory approvals are in place.

Emirates, on the other hand, will benefit from six new non-stop destinations from Dubai operated by SpiceJet: Amritsar, Jaipur, Pune, Mangalore, Madurai and Calicut which aren’t served by Emirates. Calicut is served by Emirates another partner airline, FlyDubai. Apart from the non-stop flights, Emirates will put its EK code on SpiceJet’s domestic flights covering 51 destinations in India.

Many months came and went after the signing of the MoU, but there was no update on the final date when this would go live. Some assumed it was not happening, while IndiGo went ahead and signed another codeshare, and activated it on the same day, with Qatar Airways. Various news reports talked about multiple dates for this codeshare to start, but zilch movement in the public domain.

However, finally, there seems to be some movement on this account, where SpiceJet and Emirates have finally come around to signing up the agreement sewing up the deal.

Emirates has now signed a codeshare and interline agreement with SpiceJet to give travellers to and from India access to a broader and a stronger route network. This is the first-ever codeshare agreement signed by SpiceJet.

From early 2020, customers travelling to India can take advantage of many more flight options on routes common to both airlines – Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Cochin and Delhi. Emirates customers can book and connect in Dubai on direct services to Amritsar, Calicut, Mangalore, Madurai, Jaipur and Pune – routes served by SpiceJet.

The codeshare agreement means travellers from across the globe can book a single ticket with to any of Emirates’ nine points across India and connect onwards to 172 domestic routes that are part of SpiceJet’s network.

In this first phase of the interline agreement, Emirates claims that customers can start booking flights from 25 November, for travel beginning on 15 December 2019. However, with many routes that we checked, Emirates is still selling interlines with other airlines but not SpiceJet.

I am not sure what is taking so long in making this codeshare go live. Even on the Emirates partner page, SpiceJet has still not shown up, although it is now a partner and the legal documents have been signed.

Do you think as an Emirates customer you would like to come to India on a SpiceJet flight from Dubai?