IndiGo, the country’s largest carrier by fleet and passengers, has announced its longest route yet with flights to Denpasar, Bali from Bengaluru. The flights will operate daily at below timings and the A320neo will be deployed on the mission. Flights start March 29, 2024.
6E1605 BLR0005 – 1020DPS
6E1606 DPS1120 – 1515BLR
This will be the second destination in Indonesia for IndiGo, with the first being Jakarta which is connected from Mumbai. The airline launched flights to Jakarta from August 07, 2023. Incidentally, this blog had written about the Bengaluru – Bali connection in 2019. You can find it here Indian LCCs, global narrow-body ambitions: Part 3 (IndiGo). I would have also thought of Jakarta being connected from Bengaluru as there is a lot of tech connection between Indonesia and Bengaluru with many Indonesian companies having their technology setup in Bengaluru. However, Mumbai triumphed over Bengaluru due to higher trade traffic and a better international to international connectivity.
Second Indian carrier at Bali
Vistara – the TATA SIA JV launched flights to Bali from Delhi on December 01, 2023, deploying the A321LR on the route, four of which are part of its fleet. With the timings more or less identical, there will be two Indian registered aircraft at Bali at the same time starting March 29, 2024.
This makes the flights to Bali from India a two city affair, the north having connection on Vistara from Delhi and the south having connection from Bengaluru by IndiGo. One cannot discount the possibility of passengers from the North flying IndiGo via Bengaluru and vice versa on Vistara based on choice and premium offering. There continues to be a plethora of options on Malaysia Airlines, Thai Airways, AirAsia group, Vietjet, Vietnam Airlines and Singapore airlines to fly to Bali from various points in India via respective hubs.
Longest narrowbody route
The great circle distance between Bengaluru and Bali is 4800 kms, while between Mumbai and Jakarta is 4637 kms. Mumbai – Nairobi great circle distance is 4531 kms. The Delhi – Istanbul sector which sees IndiGo deploy its damp leased B77Ws is a great circle distance of 4574 kms. The Mumbai – Istanbul route is a tad longer at 4838 kms but is operated by damp leased B77W. This makes the Bengaluru – Bali flight the longest narrowbody flight in IndiGo’s network and will be operated by the A320neo and not the A321neo as per the booking engine.
India – Indonesia connectivity
India – Indonesia connectivity has seen many ups and downs, with the recent one being a quick pull out by Batik Air from Chennai where it relaunched flights from Medan. However, the airline continues to operate to Chennai from Jakarta via Kuala Lumpur, serving the Kuala Lumpur – Chennai sector where its Malaysian subsidiary does not have rights to fly as they are exhausted.
Garuda Indonesia operated non-stop flights to Mumbai from Denpasar between the second half of 2018 and April 2019. The service barely lasted a year. The airline deployed the A330 on the route and possibly the route economics did not work out, which it would favourably for the A321LR. Before experimenting with the Bali – Mumbai service, Garuda Indonesia operated to Mumbai from Jakarta via Bangkok, deploying the B737-800 NG on the route.
This was following a sudden spurt in connections between India and Indonesia, all of which remained short lived – starting with Indonesia AirAsia X operating to Mumbai from Denpasar via Kuala Lumpur. Garuda Indonesia averaged less than 150 passengers per flight while Indonesia AirAsia X averaged around 300 passengers per flight. The A330s of Indonesia AirAsia X were configured with 377 seats, but they had a one-stop operation which put them at par with any carrier.
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.
Hub structure
The timings at Bengaluru help connect both ways to Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kochi, Delhi, Lucknow and few other cities. With limited international presence from Bengaluru for IndiGo, it wont function as a International to International transfer hub, instead the airline will rely on the large local population to fly to Bali, making it the next Vietnam – which is currently full of Indians, thanks to the increased connectivity.
Network Thoughts
Will this route become the first route for the A321XLR when it is inducted by IndiGo? At 4800 kms, this is really testing the A320neos range to its limit. While it may do well in summer, the winds in winter could have adverse impact on the operations.
Airbus has said that the A321XLR is now scheduled for entry in service in the third quarter of the year. IndiGo may not be the launch customer, but it certainly is one of the first few customers. With a longer route and possibility of route disruption due to winds, this route will become a prime candidate for replacement by XLR, provided the other requirements like ETOPS are in place.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that flights to Bali and Jakarta by Vistara and IndiGo are doing well in terms of loads. It is too early to see the route economics. Loads do not give the clear picture since full flights does not mean high revenue and high revenue does not mean profits.
Indonesia might just become the first market where the Indian carriers are asking for more seats and in that case will Indonesian carriers push back? Bilateral rights are largely negotiated as part of the larger country to country relations and India and Indonesia have enjoyed good relations. However, there is a regime change happening in Indonesia later this year. Additionally, the Indonesian carriers – especially Lion Air group led by Batik Air could see this as a perfect opportunity to make the most and operate flights to India via Kuala Lumpur having an impact on the Malaysian carriers!
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