Kingfisher Airlines in talks with British Airways

Carrier Kingfisher Airlines founder Vijay Mallya is negotiating an arrangement with British Airways that would allow Europe's second largest carrier to book its passengers on Kingfisher flights within India, the Economic Times paper reported on Monday.                                           

Code sharing agreements are currently not permitted on domestic routes between foreign and local airlines and would require the approval of the civil aviation ministry.                                           

"Kingfisher has enquired about the possibility of code-sharing with British Airways on domestic routes. It is, however, yet to formally write to us on this," the paper quoted an unnamed civil aviation ministry official as saying.                                           

Kingfisher will soon seek the regulatory approval from India's civil aviation ministry if the talks prove successful, the paper said.                                        

"We are in discussion with a few airlines on possible code share and we have made informal inquiries with the ministry of civil aviation," a Kingfisher spokesman told Reuters.