Singapore Airlines has expanded its codeshare deal with Virgin Australia to cover destinations in Australia, Asia and Europe.
The codeshare agreement is extended with immediate effect to all of Virgin Australia's domestic destinations and this offers SIA customers access to 32 Australian cities.
SIA also intends to expand its codeshare services in the coming months to include trans-Tasman flights between Australia and the New Zealand cities of Dunedin, Queenstown and Wellington. These will be subjected to regulatory approval.
In return, Virgin Australia will extend its current codeshare deal with SIA to cover connections from Australia's east coast to Europe and additional cities in Asia, through SIA's hub in Singapore, in the first quarter of 2013.
Virgin Australia customers will now have access to a total of 64 destinations in Asia and 12 in Europe on the SIA and SilkAir networks from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Darwin, says the airlines.
Virgin Australia group executive of alliances, network and yield, Merren McArthur, says: "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," adds McArthur.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
