IndiGo, India’s largest carrier by fleet and domestic market share, has been talking about international expansion for the last few years. The big bang expansion to China came to a grinding halt during the pandemic but that has not stopped the airline from starting other services. During its analyst call to discuss the Q3-FY23 results, announcements were made about flights to Jakarta and Nairobi which was reiterated at Routes Asia. The announcements for Jakarta and Nairobi were done again during the FY23 year end call and then came the big bang announcement on June 02, 2023 when the airline announced the launch of six new destinations, entering Africa in the process.
Jakarta though is equally interesting, if not more. India is a huge source market for tourism at Bali, and just when one thought that Bali is outside the narrowbody range came the news of Vistara’s approval for Delhi – Bali. Jakarta is 950 kms short of Bali, a great circle distance from Mumbai.
6E1601 BOM0755 – 1610CGK
6E1602 CGK1705 – 2130BOM
Flights will be operated by A320neo and not by A321neo and will operate on all days of the week.
Personally, I expected IndiGo to connect Jakarta from Bengaluru, since over the years Indonesian companies have set up their tech centres in the Silicon valley of India.
Read: Indian LCCs, global narrow body ambitions – Part 3
Snapshot of recent India – Indonesia flights
Garuda Indonesia ended services to Mumbai in March 2019. It tried multiple combinations which ranged from reducing frequencies to operating all economy aircraft. The airline flew non-stop from Denpasar, Bali to Mumbai but the service did not last even a full year.
Garuda Indonesia returned to India with a one-stop flight to Mumbai from Jakarta via Bangkok in December 2016. This marked the return after a long hiatus since 1986, when the airline last operated services to India.
In 2017, there was a frenzy to use the Indonesia Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) which allowed intermediate points between Indonesia and India. Indonesia AirAsia X was the first off the block to start Denpasar, Bali to Mumbai via AirAsia hub Kuala Lumpur. This marked the return of AirAsia on the Kuala Lumpur – Mumbai segment after a five year gap. Batik Air was quick to replicate the model with Kuala Namu – Kuala Lumpur – Chennai flights. Both airlines tried to do what they couldn’t due to exhaustion of rights under Malaysia – India BASA. While Indonesia AirAsia X pulled out, Batik Air sustained until the pandemic, albeit at a lower frequency.
Batik Air is relaunching connectivity to Chennai from Medan and Jakarta (via Kuala Lumpur) this August
The southernmost tip of India and the northernmost point of Indonesia are less than 150 kms apart. The relations between the two countries are often traced back to mentions in the Ramayana. In modern times, diplomatic relations were established in 1951.
Traffic flow
The limited capacity and non daily options meant that the direct flights carrier less than 2000 passengers per month with a majority of the traffic relying on Singapore Airlines, Malaysian Airlines, Thai Airways and the LCC bandwagon of AirAsia group and Batik Air (erstwhile Malindo) for the trip to Indonesia.
Vistara offers codeshare services to Indonesia from India via Singapore, while Jet Airways had an interline agreement with Garuda Indonesia as well as Jetstar. It is estimated that around 7,00,000 Indians visited Indonesia in 2019.
In absence of direct flights, Singapore Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Thai Airways and AirAsia group have been attracting all the traffic. These four airlines / groups will start feeling the impact as carriers beyond these places and the Indian carriers start non-stop flights. We have seen this with Vietnam and Indonesia comes in next.
What if Tata group airlines join in?
In June 2022, Air India Express had publicly stated it is evaluating Indonesia as part of many other countries where it would want to fly in future. The airline may not have the aircraft right now, but a lot has changed since June 2022. A large order, integration efforts and network expansion is pacing up well.
Will the Tata group also explore the Bengaluru hub idea or will it look at Denpasar, Bali from Delhi on the 787? Or will it not look at Indonesia at the moment?
Network Thoughts
Jakarta, is a brilliant addition in IndiGo’s network. However, traffic from India is scattered in Indonesia. Would IndiGo want to have a codeshare with any of the local carriers, will it be Garuda Indonesia? Lion Air is a behemoth in Indonesia but a pure LCC with little indication towards a partnership with IndiGo, especially on the systems side.
The India – Indonesia BASA allows for Indian carriers to operate to Jakarta, Medan, Surabaya and Denpasar (Bali) and allows 28 weekly services for each side. Currently, the utilisation stands at 0 from both sides.
The timings from Mumbai are primarily driven for Origin – Destination traffic and not connectivity at India end. While Mumbai does have good red eye connectivity with most metros and Tier 1 cities, not all of these flights operate from T2, from where the international operations are, leading to longer connection times. However, this connects well with the IndiGo schedule to middle east, opening up the Middle East to Indonesia market via Mumbai for IndiGo.
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