It was marketed as a Strategic Business Announcement but turned out to be another codeshare agreement. Today, Qatar Airways and IndiGo, in Delhi, marked the signing of their codeshare agreement, where Qatar Airways will be putting its code on three of IndiGo’s flights from Doha in the coming days. These code-shares will be on IndiGo’s flights from Doha t0 Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad.
Curiously, IndiGo will not be partaking in this codeshare, sending their customers the way of Qatar Airways, which is different than their codeshare arrangement with Turkish Airlines. Qatar Airways, on the other hand, will be able to sell tickets on IndiGo’s flights as well as a part of their own customer’s itineraries. IndiGo CEO Rono Dutta attributed this move to the fact that their systems were not ready to accept the added pressure of a Codeshare, as their experience with Turkish has revealed. However, they would love to do a full code-share later. Late 2018, we had analysed why a full code-share between both the airlines made a lot of sense.
IndiGo operates two flights from Doha to Mumbai, Hyderabad and Delhi each on the A320s, which are expected to be a part of this codeshare arrangement. IndiGo also operates daily direct flights from Doha to Kannur, Kozhikode, Kochi and Chennai, which won’t be a part of this agreement for now.
Qatar Airways economy passengers will get the same baggage allowance as they would get on Qatar Airways’ flights when flying on an IndiGo aircraft.
While this is the beginning, both airlines made no bones about the fact that there is more coming our way. No timelines were established, however. Akbar Al Baker stated that he’d be interested in buying a stake in IndiGo, but this was not the right time for it given the spat between the cofounders. IndiGo CEO just stated that these are small steps to what could be a more significant relationship later. Poetically, he referred to the partnership with Qatar Airways as choosing a friend during a war, and friends need to be chosen carefully.
The codeshare is up for sale for flights operated from December 18, 2019, onwards. Here is an instance of how Qatar Airways is selling the flights on its own website.
What do you make of this codeshare between the two airlines?
This decision is not good because today I buy the Qatar airways flight ticket from Doha to Hyderabad after confirmation I know that I am traveling in a indigo ., I dispointed to much with Qatar airways
God awful! Imagine if you buy a XXX-DOH-BOM, and fail to do your homework, you will be in for the shock if your life onboard the IndiGo aircraft! I really do not understand what Turkish and Qatar are gaining by diluting their own customer’s travel experience by putting them on IndiGo flights.