Air India, Vistara interline pact: here's how it's going to help passengers

Tata group owned Air India on Wednesday announced entering into an interline pact with Vistara.

An interline arrangement refers to a pact to issue and accept tickets for flights that are operated by the partner airline. When selling an interline ticket, the operating airlines own flight numbers are used.

The partnership allows Air India's passengers to travel seamlessly on Vistara's route network to and from over 80 points across Air India's extensive domestic and global network, the airline said in a statement.

Air India has over 100 similar agreements and close to 50 through check-in agreements with partner airlines globally, such as Lufthansa, United Airlines, Air Canada, and Singapore Airlines, among others.

The scope of the agreement between Air India and Vistara includes Inter Airline Through Check-in (IATCI) implementation, which enables passengers to receive their boarding passes at the first point of departure for all the travel sectors on a single ticket, and have their baggage checked-in through to their final destinations, Air India said.

Air India and Vistara operate at the same terminals at most major airports in the country.

Vistara is a joint venture between the Tata Group and Singapore Airlines.

The two carriers have also implemented 'Interline Considerations on Irregular Operations (IROPs), an arrangement which enables them to seamlessly transfer passengers to one another's first available alternative flights in case of operational disruptions such as delays, cancellations, diversions, among others.