Air India and Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL), the national carrier of Azerbaijan, have entered into a codeshare partnership to improve air connectivity between the two countries. Under the agreement, Air India will place its ‘AI’ code on daily flights operated by Azerbaijan Airlines between Delhi and Baku and between Mumbai and Baku. The move effectively brings Baku, the Azerbaijani capital, into Air India’s network as a new destination without the airline having to operate its own aircraft on the route.
What This Codeshare Partnership Involves
The codeshare, which came into effect on 29 July 2026, lets passengers book a single Air India ticket for travel to Baku, even though the flight is physically operated by Azerbaijan Airlines and carries an Air India flight number. The arrangement covers AZAL’s daily services on the Delhi–Baku and Mumbai–Baku sectors, and it builds on an existing interline agreement between the two carriers that already allowed passengers to combine both airlines on one itinerary.
For travellers, this translates into practical convenience. A passenger can now buy one Air India ticket from Delhi or Mumbai to Baku, check in through once, and have baggage transferred without a separate booking or re-check-in at the connection point. Because the deal sits on top of an interline base, passengers flying in from other Indian cities, or even from international points such as Bangkok, can connect to an Azerbaijan Airlines service to Baku under a unified itinerary rather than managing separate bookings.
Both airlines have positioned the tie-up as a stepping stone for deeper commercial cooperation. Nipun Aggarwal, Chief Commercial Officer of Air India, noted that partnerships of this kind let the airline extend its network beyond the destinations it flies itself, while Jamil Manizade, his counterpart at Azerbaijan Airlines, described India as one of the world’s fastest-growing aviation markets and a priority for AZAL’s international expansion. The agreement is expected to strengthen business, tourism and cultural links between India and Azerbaijan.
Understanding Codeshare and Interline Agreements
To grasp the significance of this deal, it helps to distinguish between the two layers of airline cooperation involved. An interline agreement is the most basic form of collaboration, under which two airlines agree to accept each other’s tickets and transfer baggage and passengers across a single itinerary. A traveller with an interline ticket checks in once and reaches their final destination without handling baggage at the stopover, even though the journey uses two different airlines.
A codeshare agreement goes a step further. It allows one airline, the marketing carrier, to sell seats on a flight that is actually flown and operated by another carrier, the operating airline, while selling that service under its own flight number and branding. In this case, Air India is the marketing carrier and Azerbaijan Airlines is the operating carrier on the Baku route. In practice, most codeshare arrangements also require an interline base so that connecting journeys can be priced and ticketed seamlessly.
The distinction matters because it explains what Air India gains. Through codeshares, an airline can advertise and sell destinations it does not physically serve, filling seats and earning revenue without the heavy costs of acquiring aircraft, crew and airport slots. The operating carrier, meanwhile, gains wider distribution through the marketing partner’s sales channels. This flexible model lets carriers enlarge their global network without adding planes or routes of their own, which is largely why codeshare agreements are a standard tool across the aviation industry.
About Azerbaijan Airlines and AZCON Holding
Azerbaijan Airlines, known by its short form AZAL, is the national flag carrier and largest airline of Azerbaijan. It was founded on 7 April 1992, in the aftermath of the country’s independence from the Soviet Union, and operates from its main base at Heydar Aliyev International Airport in Baku, named after the country’s third president. AZAL flies to more than 50 destinations and is a member of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
The carrier is today part of AZCON Holding, the Azerbaijan Transport and Communications Holding. AZCON was established by a decree of President Ilham Aliyev dated 7 November 2024 and unites twelve of Azerbaijan’s leading state-owned enterprises, spanning aviation, railways, shipping, communications, postal logistics and satellite systems. This corporate structure explains why AZAL is described as a subsidiary of AZCON Holding, which in turn is supervised by the Azerbaijani government.
For its part, Air India is the flag carrier of India, headquartered in Gurugram, Haryana. It was founded in 1932 as Tata Airlines by JRD Tata, nationalised by the government in 1953, and returned to the Tata Group in January 2022 after a successful privatisation that ended 69 years of state ownership. Today Air India is owned by Air India Limited, in which Tata Sons holds about 75 percent and Singapore Airlines about 25 percent.
Air India’s Expanding Global Alliance Network
The Azerbaijan tie-up fits into a larger strategy that Air India has pursued since returning to private hands. It is a member of the Star Alliance, the largest global airline consortium, having joined on 11 July 2014 as its 27th member. It also completed a merger with Vistara, the full-service carrier jointly run with Singapore Airlines, on 12 November 2024, folding that airline’s operations and aircraft into its own network.
Under the Tata ownership, the number of partnerships has grown sharply. Going by its most recent disclosures, Air India holds 26 codeshare agreements and more than 120 interline partnerships with carriers around the world, giving its customers access to over 1,000 destinations globally. Each codeshare adds destinations the airline does not fly itself, which is precisely the logic behind tying Baku to its network through Azerbaijan Airlines.
The significance goes beyond expanding city-pairs. Stronger codeshare coverage improves Air India’s attractiveness to airlines seeking onward connections, boosts feed traffic for its long-haul departures, and deepens the value of its loyalty programme. It also represents the kind of low-cost, low-risk network growth that a carrier rebuilding after privatisation can use to strengthen its presence in less-served markets without deploying its own aircraft.
Why Azerbaijan and Baku Matter for India
The codeshare carries strategic weight beyond air travel itself. Azerbaijan sits in the South Caucasus and is India’s largest trading partner in that region. Bilateral trade stood at about US$401 million in 2025, with Indian exports of around US$226 million and imports of about US$175 million, the latter dominated by crude oil. India’s state-run upstream firm ONGC Videsh has invested more than US$1.2 billion in Azerbaijani energy assets, including stakes in the giant Azeri–Chirag–Gunashli (ACG) oil field and the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline.
Strategically, Azerbaijan anchors a key segment of the International North–South Transport Corridor (INSTC), a multimodal route linking India to Russia and Europe through Iran, as well as the Trans–Caspian International Transport Route, often called the Middle Corridor. Baku’s landlocked position and its port and rail links make it a crucial node where cargo moving from India towards the Caucasus, Central Asia and Europe can pass. Improved air connectivity therefore complements India’s broader push to diversify supply chains and reach Eurasian markets.
There are also people-to-people stakes. In 2025, Azerbaijan received about 1.66 lakh Indian tourists, making India its fourth-largest source of inbound visitors after Russia, Türkiye and Iran. Before this deal, the two countries already shared roughly 21 direct flights a week between Delhi, Mumbai and Baku. Historically, the Ateshgah fire temple near Baku, with wall inscriptions in Devanagari and Gurmukhi scripts believed to record the visits of Indian merchants, points to centuries-old religious and trade ties between India and the Caucasus.
The Way Forward
The codeshare strengthens the aviation bridge between the two economies, but the practical test is how quickly traffic translates into fuller operational integration between Air India and Azerbaijan Airlines. Wider codeshare or interline coverage on further sectors, tighter scheduling ties, and shared frequent-flyer benefits could deepen the arrangement over time.
Looking ahead, the agreement sits alongside a broader warming of India–Azerbaijan ties, including renewed diplomatic engagement and a push for stronger cooperation in trade, energy, tourism and pharmaceuticals. Air connectivity is a building block of that reset, easing travel for businesspeople, students and tourists. Whether the current daily services grow into wider through-journeys to Caucasus and European points will depend on demand and on how both carriers choose to expand the partnership in coming months.
Key Takeaways
- Air India and Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) signed a codeshare partnership to improve air connectivity between India and Azerbaijan, effective 29 July 2026.
- Under the deal, Air India places its ‘AI’ code on AZAL’s daily Delhi–Baku and Mumbai–Baku flights, opening Baku as a new destination for Air India customers without it operating its own aircraft.
- Azerbaijan Airlines is the national flag carrier of Azerbaijan, founded on 7 April 1992 and based at Heydar Aliyev International Airport in Baku.
- AZAL operates under AZCON Holding, the Azerbaijan Transport and Communications Holding created by a presidential decree of 7 November 2024, which supervises 12 state-owned enterprises.
- Air India, founded in 1932 as Tata Airlines by JRD Tata, returned to the Tata Group in January 2022 and now maintains 26 codeshare and more than 120 interline partnerships, reaching over 1,000 destinations.
- Azerbaijan is India’s largest trading partner in the Caucasus, and is a key node of the International North–South Transport Corridor (INSTC) and the Middle Corridor.
