Established in 2000, the long-standing partnership agreement between flag carriers Air France and Aircalin has reached a new milestone on March 31st after the two airlines inked a new codeshare agreement concerning the Nouméa-Paris route via Singapore. This newly penned collaboration will see Aircalin affixing its code to three Air France flights per week, providing several benefits for passengers.
Traveling between Paris and Singapore with a single reservation
Aircalin began operating flights from La Tontouta International Airport to Singapore’s Changi International Airport last year, and the route has been experiencing success, resulting in the flag carrier increasing frequencies to six flights per week. And likewise, demand between Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport and Singapore is ever as strong as Air France currently operates 10 weekly flights for this route.
Given the success and consistently high popularity of both of these vital routes, the two flag carriers have been discussing for quite some time on the possibility of facilitating travel between Nouméa and Paris via Singapore – almost similar to their previous codeshare agreement on the Nouméa-Paris route via Tokyo’s Narita International Airport.
Furthermore, Aircalin and Air France-KLM Cargo already have an airfreight agreement for cargo flights operating between Paris and Nouméa via Singapore, which makes having a codeshare agreement on this route for passenger flights even more logical. And under this newly inked contract, Aircalin passengers can now travel under a single reservation for their entire flight journey between Nouméa and Paris and vice versa for Air France passengers.
Expanded route networks and rewards
Scheduled to go live on July 1st, the codeshare agreement will place Aircalin codes on three of the 10 weekly flights operated by Air France on the Paris-Singapore route. Flight services will depart from Nouméa on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays. Then on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays is when flight services depart from Paris.
To better match the departure timings from Nouméa to Singapore, Aircalin also tweaked the arrival timings of its flights from Papeete for passengers’ convenience. When announcing the penning of this codeshare agreement, Aircalin celebrated by saying:
“This partnership will give us increased visibility on the French and European markets through reservation systems, with the ambition of growth prospects in a major region in terms of traffic. It will also allow Aircalin to fully play its role as ambassador of New Caledonia by promoting the destination more directly throughout the European continent.”
And besides allowing passengers to travel under a single reservation for convenience, the codeshare partnership also will enable passengers to accumulate their Flying-blue miles on this new route and to mainland France for better rewards. The same benefit applies to passengers holding the Aircalin American Express Titanium card.
Photo: Ryken Martin | Shutterstock
Bottom line
On the jointly-operated Nouméa and Paris route, Air France and Aircalin consistently ferry some 60,000 passengers every year. The previous codeshare involving Tokyo also saw similar success, highlighting the subtle expectation that this new involvement of Singapore will see the same results for both flag carriers.
What do you think of this codeshare agreement between Aircalin and Air France? Tell us in the comments below.
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Air France
- IATA/ICAO Code:
- AF/AFR
- Airline Type:
- Full Service Carrier
- Hub(s):
- Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport
- Year Founded:
- 1933
- Alliance:
- SkyTeam
- Airline Group:
- Air France-KLM
- CEO:
- Anne Rigail
- Country:
- France
