A new alliance between Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Virgin Australia allowing the carriers to codeshare on flights will not extend to transpacific flights operated by Virgin Australia's long-haul associate V Australia.
"We do not have the underlying rights for those flights and the alliance will not include codesharing on US flights," said SIA's CEO Goh Choon Phong. However, he hopes that SIA's partnership with Virgin Australia will help the Star Alliance strengthen its case to be allowed to fly beyond Australia to the United States.
SIA cannot operate these transpacific flights because of a lack of rights from the Australian government.
"We are always for greater liberalisation," said Goh. "We hope this alliance will show our commitment to the Australian market."
V Australia operates flights to Los Angeles from Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney. Under the alliance unveiled today by SIA and Virgin Australia, the two airlines plan to codeshare on each other's international and domestic flights. This will add 30 more destinations to SIA's network and give Virgin Australia customers access to 70 extra destinations.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
