A day after Qantas sought to expand its presence in India by code-sharing with Jet Airways, the Singapore-based Jetstar Asia, a regional extension of Qantas, said it is also considering an alliance with the Indian carrier.
Jetstar Asia has been in dialogue with Jet Airways and one or two other Indian carriers 'but no firm agreement has been reached with anybody,' a media report quoted Jetstar CEO Alan Joyce as saying on Wednesday.
A Qantas spokesperson told PTI it has applied for a code-share agreement with Jet Airways, which flies to 43 cities and holds 35 per cent stake in the Indian market.
But neither the Australian carrier nor Jetstar commented on whether both having code-share arrangements with Jet Airways would pit them against each other.
Jetstar Asia is a Singapore-based partnership between local businessmen Tony Chew and FF Wong, Temasek Holdings and Qantas which holds major share of 44.5 per cent.
It is the regional extension of Jetstar brand, launched by Qantas as a low cost airline in the Australian market.
Speaking at an Australian and Irish chambers of commercemeeting, Joyce said Jetstar and Jetstar Asia would work closely to build the brand across Asia-Pacific region.
Jetstar Asia and Jetstar have a lot of potential synergies. By the time Jetstar's international operations start in November, the two companies will share an Asian call centre and use the same website for bookings, he said.
"There are a lot of potential destinations in Asia and we'll be teaming with Jetstar Asia to make sure we get the benefits. Korea and Japan are going to be big markets for us and India and China have potential to be big markets also," Joyce added.
