Seychelles' national airline, Air Seychelles, and SriLankan Airlines, the flag carrier of Sri Lanka, have announced a new code-sharing partnership, expanding the number of destinations accessible to customers from Mahe and Colombo starting this month.

The airline said on Friday, "Over 20 destinations are included in the partnership, which includes much  requested ones such as Sydney and Melbourne in Australia as well as other popular stops in India, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. SriLankan Airlines' passengers will also be able to fly from Colombo to Mahe with the activation of the codeshare partnership."

This new codeshare agreement will allow Air Seychelles and SriLankan Airlines to place their codes on each other's flights and enable passengers to continue their journey conveniently using a single booking and with their baggage checked in all the way to the final destination.

It also means passengers can book their travels with both airlines, through online travel agencies, as well as with local travel agents.

When Air Seychelles launched the Colombo service in June last year, the two airlines signed an initial interline agreement that introduced multiple cities within the Southeast Asia region to the local market's choice of destinations.

Air Seychelles' chief executive, Sandy Benoiton, said, "Now that we have been flying to Colombo for over 9 months, the twice-weekly flights have proven successful. The next step to solidifying our relationship is with this code-share, allowing even more passengers the convenience of a single ticket to more points served by our partner in Asia and Australia."

On his side, Richard Nuttall, CEO of SriLankan Airlines said, "We are pleased to boost our codeshare network and presence in the African region through this new partnership. We look forward to working with Air Seychelles to provide our customers with even more African destination options in the coming years."

Flights under the codeshare agreement are available to book now and will begin operating in April 2024.