The codeshare partnership will mean customers booking a Virgin Atlantic ticket will be able to fly on the airline’s Heathrow to Delhi and Mumbai flights and connect to and from seven additional cities in India.
Later this year the agreement will be expanded to cover a total of 16 destinations throughout India, as well as connections onto Virgin Atlantic’s US network operated via Heathrow.
The agreement will allow the carrier to sell seats to passengers connecting onto IndiGo flights. The initial codeshare destinations include Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Goa, Delhi and Mumbai.
The additional destinations will include Kochi, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Pune, Coimbatore, Nagpur, Vadodara, Indore and Visakhapatnam.
The flights – subject to governmental approval – will be available this week for booking for travel beyond 27 September.
The new agreement will also allow Virgin Atlantic’s Flying Club members to reach their rewards faster, with opportunities to earn both Virgin Points and Tier Points available on every codeshare with IndiGo.
Juha Jarvinen, chief commercial officer at Virgin Atlantic, said this summer marks the airline’s "largest ever" flying programme from India with three daily direct services to London.
"IndiGo is India’s largest airline and its extensive network will offer Virgin Atlantic customers even more choice when travelling between the UK and India, as well as offering seamless connections for the onward travel across our extensive US route network," he added.
"This new partnership aims to respond to the large, fast-growing demand for visiting friends and relatives, leisure as well as business travellers looking for more choice between UK and India."
