SpiceJet in pact with Hahn Air for better global reach

Domestic budget carrier SpiceJet today said it has signed an interline pact with German scheduled operator and service distributor Hahn Air to spread its presence in the international markets, particularly European destinations.
An interline arrangement refers to a pact to issue and accept tickets for flights that are operated by the partner airline. When selling an iinterline ticket, the operating airline's own flight numbers are used.
With this pact, SpiceJet would be able to sell its flight tickets on Hahn Air's booking system, thereby giving the airline a direct access to the global platform while making passengers' travel worldwide easy, a release said today.

This is the second time the Gurgaon-based airline has entered into such a pact with an overseas airline. In 2013, SpiceJet, then owned by Kalanithi Maran, had tied up with Singapore's Tiger Air for a similar arrangement. However, it was called off within a year after the airline nearly went belly up in December 2014.
"We have charted out a systematic growth path for SpiceJet and the time is ripe for us to reach out to a wider audience while enabling our customers to avail an extensive network with elevated convenience. The association will help us to penetrate the untapped markets," Shilpa Bhatia, Senior Vice President for Commercial, SpiceJet, said in the release.

The Dusseldorf-based Hahn Air is a global leader in providing distribution services for air, rail and shuttle partners, and a ticketing expert for travel agents.

Apart from giving access to retail customers worldwide, Hahn Air offers a network to non-GDS (global distribution system) airlines enabling them to be booked through over 95,000 travel agencies across 190 markets.
"We are proud to welcome SpiceJet as the latest airline to join the H1-Air network. This is especially momentous as they are Hahn Air System's 50th partner," Alexander Proschka, Head of Hahn Air Systems, said.
With the interline agreement in place, SpiceJet's domestic and international services will now be available on all GDSs and will be issuable on the Hahn Air platform.

The country's second largest budget airline in terms of market share, SpiceJet currently operates 298 daily flights to 41 destinations, including 35 domestic and six international ones with a fleet of 28 Boeing 737NG and 14 Bombardier Q-400 planes.