Japan Airlines and Indian full-service carrier, Vistara, have entered a codeshare partnership that will open up more routes between India and Tokyo than ever before.

With the signing of this agreement, Vistara becomes the only codeshare partner for Japan Airlines in India.

The sales of tickets open today on all channels for travel from Thursday.

As part of the agreement, Japan Airlines will add its ‘JL’ designator code to approximately 32 Vistara-operated flights each day across India covering seven Indian cities, namely Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Pune.

JAL and Vistara already have an interline through check-in partnership and the two airlines had signed a memorandum of understanding in September 2017 to pursue commercial opportunities as partners.

Commenting on the partnership, Sanjiv Kapoor, Vistara chief strategy and commercial officer, said: “We are delighted to further strengthen our partnership with Japan Airlines with this codeshare agreement, which is a step that underlines our commitment of partnering with some of the leading airlines in the world and of putting Vistara, India’s best airline, on the global map.

“This partnership helps us offer greater convenience and variety of choice to customers with a comprehensive network, as well as the opportunity of welcoming travellers from Japan and beyond to experience Vistara’s award-winning hospitality and service.

“We are confident that our respective customers will truly enjoy the shared benefits of this partnership between two airlines committed to being amongst the best service providers on the ground and in the sky.”

The codeshare flights will offer connections to and from a daily flight that JAL already operates to Delhi directly from Tokyo Narita.

Japan Airlines and Vistara flights operate from the same terminal at Delhi, making connections at the airport even more convenient and seamless.

“The number of passengers traveling between Japan and India has increased over time,” said Hideki Oshima, executive officer, Japan Airlines.

“By strengthening the partnership with Vistara, we will be able to provide better network access for our mutual customers.

“And, we look to further cooperate with Vistara to open up additional opportunities for both airlines.”