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 airline opened reservations to Nairobi, Jakarta and Tbilisi in the last week of June. Now it is the turn of Baku, Azerbaijan. With a 4x weekly flight starting August 11, 2023 and operated by the A320neo, IndiGo will compete directly with AZAL – the national carrier of Azerbaijan, which launched services to Delhi in June 2019 and returned post COVID in August last year. The airline had also launched services to Mumbai, but subsequently suspended those.
IndiGo’s flights will operate four times a week, at below timings
6E1803 DEL2020 – 2350GYD 1357
6E1804 GYD0140 – 0710DEL 1246
IndiGo will operate the flight on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday from Delhi. AZAL operates the flight on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday from Baku with return from Delhi on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.
Baku, Azerbaijan
Baku is the capital of Azerbaijan and is one of the most developed cities amongst the 14 countries (barring Russia) which were formed after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Oil driven wealth has seen Baku turn from a sleepy soviet town to a modern day investment magnet which aims to compete with the likes of Dubai and Abu Dhabi in future.
The Heydar Aliyev International Airport (IATA: GYD) plays host to Azerbaijan Airlines as well as the cargo airline SIlk Way West Airlines. The airport was named after the former president in 2004 and saw expansion in 2014.
Baku, the largest city in the country, lies on the Caspian coast and its growth has been fuelled by petroleum and gas products. Over 85% of its exports are Crude Petroleum or Gas. The country has been trying to diversify into other areas which includes services, strengthening Agriculture and tourism.
Apart from being a gateway to Azerbaijan, Baku itself has many sights of historic significance as well as tourist attractions. However, the old soviet architecture buildings are slowly making way for modern glass and steel structures. Azerbaijan has been working towards liberalising its visa regime. India and Azerbaijan have diplomatic relations dating back to 1992 and have an embassy in each other’s capital cities.
The route and the numbers
The twice a week route of Azal to Delhi has seen very few passengers in the first quarter of CY 2023. Data released by the regulator shows just 800 passengers from India to Azerbaijan and 600 to India from Azerbaijan, an average of 100 passengers per flight.
India imported minerals and fuel from Azerbaijan while it exported Rice, Pharma and Ceramic products. The imports far outweigh the exports, though as a percentage of total trade for India, the numbers are miniscule.
Network Thoughts
The red-eye flights are not surprising since it looks more like rotating the same aircraft between Tbilisi and Baku.
As flights for Tashkent and Almaty open up over the next few days, the real challenge will be seeing connectivity and with the limited infrastructure at Delhi airports, especially connectivity between terminals.
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