Indian domestic market leader IndiGo – which started flights to Istanbul, Turkey today has also started selling code-share flights on Turkish Airlines to select destinations. These destinations include Athens, Malta, Brussels, Budapest and Tel Aviv.
Some readers would have already seen this tweet from a month ago!
Some surprising destinations may form part of the IndiGo – Turkish code-share
Awaiting official confirmation 🙂— Ameya (@khabri_lal) February 20, 2019
Barring Tel Aviv, none of the other destinations have a direct flight from India. SN Brussels pulled out the 5x weekly departure to Brussels from Mumbai early this year.
Another 15 destinations will be up soon in one or two phases and will be a good test market for IndiGo while it dilly dallies on its one-stop flights to Europe. From the passenger perspective, the IndiGo – Turkish code-share gives better product while flying Turkish Airlines. Of the current five destinations, Brussels sees maximum traffic from India while Athens, Budapest and Tel Aviv has seeb consistent growth in tourist traffic. Malta comes as a surprise considering the traffic numbers from Delhi.
IndiGo had announced code share with Turkish Airlines on 21st December and has opened flights for sale for its second daily to Istanbul from Delhi earlier this month. The airline, however, will be forced to have a technical stop in Doha due to the on-going airspace closure by Pakistan. IndiGo has deployed its A321neo for the first frequency while the airline will operate an A320 for the second frequency. The code share was partially active earlier with Turkish opening up the code share effective today.
Turkish Airlines flights operated by IndiGo will be to Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata from Delhi, while the airline will also offer TK coded flights to Amritsar, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata from Mumbai. The Delhi – Istanbul sector will also have a TK code on IndiGo flights.
IndiGo could sign between two – three code shares more as it takes delivery of 14 more A321neo in 222 seater configuration, dedicated for International expansion.
NetworkThoughts 