In June 2023, IndiGo announced its intention to open six new destinations. These destinations were Jakarta and Nairobi from Mumbai, with daily flights; Baku, Tashkent, Almaty and Tbilisi from Delhi of which Baku and Tashkent would operate four times a week, while Almaty and Tbilisi would operate thrice a week. Some anecdotal evidence has suggested strong demand, loads and possibly fares too for the flight to Jakarta – where there was no competition.
The airline announced its launch to Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan on July 05, 2023. The flights began on August 11, 2023. The airline has now decided to up the ante on the route and operate Daily. The flights are open for sale on the airlines’ website and operate daily from March 11, 2024 onwards, with additional flights on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, which earlier were days without operation. These will operate with differential timings as below
6E1803 DEL2140 – 0105(+1)GYD 246
6E1804 GYD0235 – 0800DEL 357
6E1803 DEL2020 – 2350GYD 1357
6E1804 GYD0140 – 0710DEL 1246
This makes it the first out of the four non-daily routes which it started to CIS countries to expand. 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.
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. Apart from trader traffic, tourism could have been a big driver. Indians can apply for an e-visa for Azerbaijan.
The actual numbers and occupancy stats would be known a few weeks from now when the DGCA declares the October to December quarter data for international traffic.
Network Thoughts
The route dynamics for the four sectors; Delhi – Tbilisi, Delhi – Tashkent, Delhi – Almaty and Delhi – Baku are interesting. While Delhi – Tbilisi is a monopoly sector, the other three have had connectivity. AZAL continued with its planned operations even after IndiGo’s entry, while Air Astana is taking IndiGo head-on, increasing the frequency on the Almaty – Delhi route and also deploying some of that capacity in the form of its LCC Fly Arystan.
The frequency increase at a time when 76 aircraft are grounded indicates the success of the route. This also indicates that another aircraft will be needed to operate the route, which potentially opens up the opportunity to add frequency to existing routes on four days of the week or add another destination with up to four times a week of frequency.
The red-eye timings – which have remained consistent to Vietnam and the CIS seem to be working well in terms of attracting traffic, with passengers willing to take such flights compared to one-stop options.
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