It's a deal: Singapore Airlines, Virgin Australia give two thumbs up to flight expansion

SIA passengers can now fly to 32 Aussie cities.

According to a release, Singapore Airlines and Virgin Australia announced the expansion of their codeshare agreement to cover further destinations in Australia, Asia and Europe.

Codesharing has been extended with immediate effect to all of Virgin Australia’s domestic destinations, offering SIA customers access to 32 Australian cities.

SIA also intends to further expand codesharing in the coming months to include trans-Tasman flights between Australia and the New Zealand cities of Dunedin, Queenstown and Wellington, subject to regulatory approval.

In the first quarter of 2013, Virgin Australia will in turn extend its current codeshare with SIA to cover connections from the East Coast of Australia to Europe and additional cities in Asia, via SIA’s hub in Singapore.

Virgin Australia currently codeshares on SIA flights to Europe from Adelaide, Perth and Darwin. In total, Virgin Australia customers will now have access to 64 destinations in Asia and 12 destinations in Europe on the SIA and SilkAir networks from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Darwin.

“This codeshare expansion is a major step forward in our deepening partnership. With more cities covered, Singapore Airlines and Virgin Australia can together offer even better connections for our customers between Singapore and Australia, as well as through our Singapore hub to many more points around the world,” said SIA Executive Vice President Commercial, Mr Mak Swee Wah.

Virgin Australia Group Executive of Alliances, Network and Yield, Ms Merren McArthur, said: “There is strong demand from our customers to be able to travel onwards from Asia to Europe. We currently offer this option to customers from Adelaide, Perth and Darwin, and today’s announcement will see this expanded to include the East Coast of Australia. We also welcome the expansion of Singapore Airlines’ codeshare on our domestic services as it will help to promote tourism in Australia.”

SIA and Virgin Australia entered into a wide-ranging partnership last year. In addition to codesharing, the alliance covers reciprocal frequent-flyer programme benefits and lounge access, coordinated schedules to provide seamless connections, and joint sales, marketing and distribution activities.

SIA and subsidiary SilkAir together serve 97 destinations in 36 countries across six continents. Virgin Australia serves 49 destinations in 14 countries.