Turkish Airlines and IndiGo may grow their codeshare

Turkish Airlines and IndiGo reportedly plan to expand their codeshare agreement to additional destinations.

They signed the agreement in Dec-2018 and began its operation in Mar-2019, when the Indian LCC also launched Delhi-Istanbul (its first and only Turkey route). The partnership currently covers Delhi-Istanbul, operated by both, Mumbai-Istanbul, operated only by Turkish Airlines, and destinations served by IndiGo in India and by Turkish Airlines in parts of Europe.

The two airlines have been considering the extension of the codeshare agreement to include Turkish Airlines services to the US, Canada, Germany, Spain, Portugal and Italy. In addition, IndiGo may add a second Istanbul service from another Indian city. Turkish also codeshares with Air India (which has no routes to Turkey).

Seat capacity in the Turkey-India market has doubled since 2012, thanks to IndiGo's entry this year and expansion by Turkish Airlines on its two routes.

However, it remains small, particularly by comparison with markets from India to the Gulf, although Turkey-India has greater O&D potential to add to the sixth freedom connecting traffic pursued by Turkish Airlines. Bilateral constraints on traffic rights may need to be loosened if this market is to reach its full potential.