Code Sharing And Air Service Agreements: An Overview

Code-sharing is a fairly common marketing arrangement where an airline (a "Marketing Airline") places its designator code on a flight operated by another airline ("Operating Airline"), and then markets and sells tickets for that flight. Code sharing enables airlines to increase their traffic and revenues thereby profits, network size, service frequency, offering more destinations through the coordination of operations. Permissibility of code-sharing between airlines across different countries is largely provided for under the bilateral Air Service Agreements ("ASA's") governing the various freedoms of air entered into between two countries.

As such, this article seeks to provide an overview of the domestic and international framework that governs code-sharing arrangements in India as well as potential issues arising due to the different types of ASA's, especially in the context of rights of third-party countries under ASAs entered between two countries. Accordingly,