IndiGo increases frequency to Almaty, Tashkent and Tbilisi

IndiGo – the country’s largest carrier by fleet and market share is increasing its presence in Central Asia. The airline launched flights to Almaty, Tashkent, Tbilisi and Baku last year. Early this year, the airline added frequency to Baku making the offering Daily effective March 11, 2024. 

The airline is now adding frequencies to Almaty, Tashkent and Tbilisi. The flights will continue to be operated by the A320 family aircraft, which has seen deployment of A320neo in most cases. 

Flights to Almaty started on Sep 23, 2023; IndiGo is increasing its frequency to Daily from 16, August, 2024. 

Flights to Tashkent started on Sep 22, 2023; IndiGo is increasing its frequency to Daily from 17, August, 2024. An increase of three flights a week, from the current four – making it a daily operation. 

Flights to Tbilisi started on Aug 08, 2023; IndiGo is increasing its frequency to Daily from current thrice a week. The new flights will start effective 16, August, 2024.

Kazakhstan 

Air Astana upped the ante against IndiGo to protect its turf. It deployed services of Fly Arystan – its low cost arm to operate certain frequencies and Air Astana increased frequency to double daily. 

As of today, there are 14 weekly flights by Air Astana, two of which are operated by the low cost arm Fly Arstyan. The airline which had launched twice a week service from Shymkent has withdrawn from that route. Air Astana group had 80% of seats in the market while the rest 20% were with IndiGo.

With the increase in frequency, IndiGo would still be half of Air Astana, but in an expanded market which can push the yields down. However, the visa free travel to Kazakhstan can spur growth and balance the yields.

Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan Airlines was more laid back in responding to IndiGo as compared to Air Astana. The airline which operated five weekly services to Delhi, increased it to a daily service and re-instated the pre-COVID twice weekly service to Mumbai. The airline deploys just about any equipment to Delhi and the last few weeks have seen regular swaps between A321neo, B767-300 and B787-8 dreamliner. 

With the increase in frequency, IndiGo will now have an equal footing on the frequency share while the capacity share remains variable, thanks to the different equipment deployed by Uzbekistan Airlines. 

Georgia

The most surprising of the lot back then was flights to Georgia. The flights seem to be doing well, as the airline continues to extend its monopoly in Georgia. 

I continue to wonder if Tbilisi will act as a scissors hub for flights to Europe, until the A321XLRs come in and eventually the A350s. 

Network Thoughts

IndiGo has always claimed that it aims to focus more on the international side. The focus is now as easy as domestic because of multiple other factors like bilaterals and time taken for regulatory approvals

All of the stations which are seeing an increase in frequency are one of the lowest frequency stations of IndiGo. 

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