IndiGo has been on an international flight announcement and starting spree from the South of the country. This comes after it did a similar thing in the north, increasing frequencies to Central Asia and launching flights to new points in the last few months.
From August until November, booking engines are showing that the airline has either added or is adding a sizeable chunk of flights from Chennai. The airline recently started operations to Jaffna from Chennai, making it the first international outing for the ATR 72-600. The airline is also adding a daily flight to Colombo, taking the flights per week to 21 from 14. IndiGo will also add a third daily to Singapore, going up from current double daily to triple daily operations. Booking engines are also showing addition of frequency to Bangkok from Chennai, to daily from four times a week service. Singapore also sees a new service by IndiGo from Coimbatore.
Apart from Singapore and Sri Lanka, the airline is also focusing on the United Arab Emirates’ capital Abu Dhabi, where it recently started flights from Bengaluru, Trichy, Mangalore and Coimbatore. The airline is focusing on increased frequency to Kuwait, Ras Al Khaimah and Riyadh from Hyderabad.
The southern cities have a mix of white collar and blue collared traffic to both east and west. There has been a significant increase in travellers who have disposable income and are willing to take a short holiday in countries which offer visa on arrival requiring minimal planning to travel.
Time for big hits
Going by IndiGo’s fleet plan, stability of its fleet post the recent inductions, deploying damp leased MAX 8 on routes to Doha and freeing up six aircraft along with competition coming up from the Air India group; IndiGo will be pushed to take some tough calls on its expansion. The additional flights to Singapore and Sri Lanka seem to be part of the plan, where at both places a volume driven market is chosen to start flights, along with the shortest sectors. This gives it a headstart to utilise rights, hold slots and ability to change frequency to another city at a later point of time.
With Delhi congested, Mumbai unavailable, the focus has shifted to Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad. All three have relatively easier transit between domestic and international and vice versa, making it an attractive transit location.
Network Thoughts
The airline has already announced that it would add seven new international stations in the next couple of months. Only one of these has been operational, which was Jaffna – the first international outing for the ATR 72-600 in IndiGo’s fleet.
There have been media reports about the destinations but no confirmation yet from the airline. Lately, the airline has been announcing destinations at mega events, like it did at the IATA AGM in Turkey in the past. With the India – APAC conference scheduled this week, will it make the grand announcements for expansion around this time?
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There is good potential on the Coimbatore gulf sector. Several thousand expats from Kongu region travel to Kochi or Calicut to catch a flight to gulf ports like Dubai, Doha,Riyadh ,Bahrain & Kuwait.Hence Indigo can start direct flights to Dubai & Riyadh. Also several hundreds travel to Chennai & Bangalore to catch flights to far east countries. Hence Indigo may start direct flights to Singapore, Hongkong, Bangkok & Kolalampur. Also they can start hopping flights connecting Chennai , Bangalore,Kochi, Calicut and Trivandrum.