Bangalore: Jet Airways and Air Deccan agreed on Tuesday to fly each other's passengers when flights are cancelled. The agreement, which comes into immediate effect, is the first of its kind for the airline industry in India.

Disclosing this to The Hindu, Air Deccan Managing Director, Captain G.R. Gopinath, said the arrangement would be a barter exchange wherein excess seats would be allocated to the airline which has a cancellation. An option is given to the passenger for availing the seat available.

The arrangement, he said, would help improve the performance of Air Deccan, which cancels about 40 of its 260 flights in a week due to technical problems.

Jet's performance is much better. Air Deccan is connected to 56 destinations, while Jet has networked 44 destinations in the country and the synergies are expected to be a win-win situation for both.

Capt. Gopinath said the other areas of cooperation between the airlines included code sharing by which the two could carry passengers to destinations not touched by the other. Also Air Deccan is looking at sharing of spares and tooling for ATR aircraft. "This may take another six months," he said.

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