Jet may get Air Sahara’s code deal with American Airlines

MUMBAI: After turning the government’s asset transfer guidelines on takeovers in its favour, it appears Jet Airways may also succeed in swinging Air Sahara’s code-sharing pact with American Airlines (AA) in its favour.

Of course, that would happen after some tinkering with the current AA-Air Sahara agreement.

“We are evaluating the possibility of such a movement of the code-sharing pact. We are in talks with Jet, and are open to it. But we will have to start all over again to work out the best way to partner with our new partner,” said Nisha Maharaj, regional manager, Indian Subcontinent- AA.

Early this year, full-service airline Jet acquired Air Sahara for Rs 2,300 crore ($500 million) in an all-cash deal. This marked India’s first consolidation move in a market teeming with start-up airlines.

Jet expects to gain a certain edge over its rivals with the Air Sahara deal. If AA decides to transfer Air Sahara’s code-sharing agreement to it, Jet would be able to fly AA’s flyers to 25 or more cities of India.

Analysts say if AA decides to expand the pact with Air Sahara to include Jet’s flights, then the American carrier would get a wider network in India.

AA and Air Sahara had tied up for code-sharing late last year. Under the pact, AA had put its ‘AA’ code on Sahara’s flights to North America, and Sahara its ‘S2’ code on American flights bound for India and beyond.

That would allow passengers to acquire frequent flyer miles through flights on both airlines and make it easier for American passengers to fly throughout India.