The agreement will make ticketing and baggage transfer easier but stopovers will remain an issue. Enroute to India, stopover times will range from a very respectable 2 hours to 10 hours, while on the return journey to Darwin, travelers will encounter a 5-6 hour stopover in Singapore before the red-eye flight.
Gary Shipway
NT News | 23 March 2017
THE Territory’s hopes of tapping into the emerging India tourist market is a step closer with one of India’s premier international airlines adding Darwin to its destination footprint.
Mumbai-based Jet Airways and Singapore-based Jetstar Asia have signed a codeshare agreement for flights from Singapore extending Jet’s footprint to Darwin.
Under the agreement, Jet Airways will place its marketing code ‘9W’ on Jetstar Asia flights between Darwin and Singapore.
Jet Airways chief commercial officer Jayaraj Shanmugam said Darwin was now an increasing feature in the itineraries of Indian travellers seeking newer leisure destinations.
“Jetstar Asia flies to some of the most popular leisure and business destinations across the Asia Pacific,” he said.
“With this codeshare agreement, our passengers will now be able to tap into this extensive network to explore new and exotic destinations like Darwin.”
Jet Airways is the second largest airline in India after IndiGo with a 21.2 per cent passenger market share. It operates more than 300 flights daily to 68 international destinations.
Top End Tourism CEO Trevor Cox has welcomed the news saying it commits Jet Airways within India to marketing Darwin and the Northern Territory as a tourist destination. “It is a small step in the right direction,” Mr Cox said.
“This is positive news for a country the new Territory Government is targeting as a tourist growth market for the Territory.
“It is a bit early to see what impact it will have on tourism but everything helps.
“It will help with the overall development of our market.”
Darwin International Airport was also cautious about the short term impact of the new codeshare arrangements.
“While it is good Darwin now features in their marketing, the Jet Airways flight schedule will mean a five-hour wait for a connecting flight to Darwin which may not be too attractive for travellers,” an airport spokesman said.
“I cannot see a lot for Darwin in it in the short term.”
India is one of the world’s fastest growing outbound travel markets, with predictions of 50 million outbound travellers by 2020.
It is Australia’s 10th largest inbound market for visitor arrivals and is one of the key Asian markets driving growth in this “Asian Century”.