On the sidelines of IATA AGM at Istanbul, on June 02, 2023, IndiGo announced its intention to operate six new international destinations. These include two from Mumbai – Nairobi and Jakarta, which will lead to IndiGo entering Africa for the first time and four from Delhi. The four destinations to Delhi are all to countries in the former Soviet Union, Tashkent – Uzbekistan; Almaty – Kazakhstan; Baku – Azerbaijan and Tbilisi – Georgia.
The most surprising of these six was the Tbilisi – Georgia, reservations for which are now open on IndiGo’s website. Surprising because, Nairobi, Almaty, Baku and Tashkent have existing connectivity with India and India – Indonesia has had one-stop connectivity until the pandemic started and the connectivity has recently resumed. The most surprising, thus, was the announcement of Georgia.
For those airline networks and news around this domain, would have noticed a small press release from TAV Georgia – the only airport operating company in Georgia. Dating back to 2019, the press release talked about IndiGo’s imminent entry into Georgia.
IndiGo will start services to Tbilisi from Delhi. The thrice a week service will be launched on August 08, 2023 and the airline will deploy the A320neo on this route at below timings.
6E1807 DEL2010 – 0045(+1)TBS 246
6E1808 TBS0145 – 0710DEL 357
Tbilisi and Georgia
Georgia is one of the caucasian countries, with Caspian sea on one side and lies on the cusp of Eastern Europe and Asia. Georgia was part of the Soviet Union, until its disintegration in 1991. India and Georgia established diplomatic relations in 1992. India does not have an embassy in Georgia, with the embassy in Armenia concurrently accredited to Georgia.
Tbilisi Airport (IATA: TBS) is operated by TAV Airports – a Turkish airport operator and also one of the leading airport operators in the world. It is partially owned by ADP, which also has a stake in GMR Airports.
The three caucasian countries – Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia have had their share of troubles, with Georgia and Russia leading to formation of Abkhazia and South Ossetia – regions which are not widely recognised by the world.
Georgia has taken rapid strides in developing tourism with a lot of historic and modern sites to see with two to three cities attracting tourists.
The route and the numbers
A look at the numbers makes it clear that Tbilisi is definitely not the top place to go for Indians. Coupling that with lack of connectivity and miniscule trade, where neither the imports or exports are crossing 0.1% of total trade from and to India, it makes one wonder on the rationale behind the route.
A look at the map below makes me think if Tbilisi will become the scissors hub of the future for IndiGo. The city lies short of Istanbul and within perfect distance for the A320neo as well as the A321neo. Additionally, it also is mid-way between Delhi Paris / Amsterdam / Frankfurt.
Does this give the airline ability to fly to Tbilisi from major cities in India or at least the top three or four and then serve four cities in Europe with ability to transfer passengers at Tbilisi – an airport which has capacity, does not have a large hub carrier and the weather would permit a relatively hassle free experience. A scissor hub – like the one which Jet Airways had at Brussels or Amsterdam could be the future at Tbilisi.
It would still mean that the flights wont be one-stop and would compete with the likes of Emirates, Qatar, Etihad and others and the cost differential would play a major part here.
I have always wondered on why IndiGo opts for such timings, since I would have expected a timing which aligns with the leisure traveler or the typical timings which the ASEAN carriers have to India, landing between 2100 to 2300 hours and leaving after an hour to have an early morning arrival at base. IndiGo has similar red-eye arrivals into Vietnam as well.
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