Fly non-stop from KIA to Sydney from September

NT Correspondent

Flying from Bengaluru to Australia will take only twelve hours from September onwards. Qantas will start operating four weekly return flights between Kempegowda Inter national Air port and Sydney’s Kingsford Smith International Airport from September 14.

Australia’s national airline will fly its Airbus A330 from Bengaluru, making it the only airline that connects both northern and southern India directly to Australia.

Currently, the journey between the two cities takes a minimum of 13 hours with at least one stop. According to Qantas, its direct flight is non-stop and will take twelve hours. Tickets for travel between Sydney and Bengaluru are priced at Rs 78,380, for both arrival and departure. They have been made available from Friday, April 8.

Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce noted that the demand for direct flights between Australia and India had grown steadily since both countries reopened their borders. “AustraliaIndia free trade agreement will also drive travel demand as trade and investment links expand between the two nations,” he said

Qantas is set to finalise a codeshare partnership with IndiGo. According to IndiGo CEO Ronojoy Dutta, the codeshare will enable Qantas customers to fly to more than 50 unique cities on IndiGo via Bengaluru, Delhi, and Singapore.

The codeshare partnership is accompanied by several other benefits. Qantas has mentioned in a statement that customers who join its Frequent Flyer programme will be able to earn and redeem points on connecting IndiGo flights and the Indian airline will recognise Qantas Frequent Flyer benefits for tiered members. This will facilitate priority check-in, additional baggage allowance and priority baggage.

Customers of Jetstar will also be able to book connecting flights on IndiGo services through the Jetstar Connect platform which is intended to start in late April.