Aviation ties: Air India restores codeshare with Air Canada; flyers get wider access across Canada

Air India on Saturday announced it has reinstated its codeshare partnership with Air Canada, resuming a tie-up that was suspended more than five years ago during the coronavirus pandemic.Under the renewed arrangement, Air India will offer passengers access to six destinations in Canada beyond its gateways at Vancouver and London Heathrow, PTI reported. The airline will place its ‘AI’ designator code on Air Canada-operated flights connecting Vancouver to Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Montréal and Halifax, and from London Heathrow to Vancouver and Calgary.A codeshare agreement allows passengers to travel on multiple flights across airlines using a single ticket.Air Canada customers, in turn, will get seamless connectivity on domestic routes in India, including Amritsar, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Kochi via Delhi, and to Delhi and Mumbai via London Heathrow, according to the release.This is currently Air India’s only codeshare partnership with a North American airline.The carrier had suspended all codeshare agreements during the pandemic, when it was a government-owned entity. The airline now has 23 codeshare partners and 96 interline tie-ups, the company said.