IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers announced that it would launch flights to Langkawi and Penang during the analyst call post Q2-FY25 results. These are part of the seven international destinations which the airline had said it would launch until March 2025. It has already launched flights to Jaffna and Mauritius.
IndiGo has now opened flights to Langkawi, its second destination in Malaysia. Flights begin December 16, 2024; in line for some last minute holiday travel.
The flights will operate as below
6E 1043 BLR0340 – 1025LGK
6E 1044 LGK1125 – 1255BLR
Flights will operate daily and see the A320/A320neo being deployed.
This marks a new beginning for IndiGo as it ventures into secondary cities on the international front. Its entire international network is to major airports/hubs in respective countries, possibly barring Ras Al Khaimah which was the 100th destination for the airline and then Phuket.
This also marks a change in strategy with respect to Malaysia, where it launched flights to possibly take on AirAsia Bhd. but ended up scaling back on the other side of the pandemic and kept a solitary flight from Chennai. As part of the strategy, it has also tied up with Malaysia Airlines recently with codeshare with “6E” code being placed on multiple routes including Penang, Langkawi, Johor Bahru, Kota Kinabalu and Kuching.
Langkawi
Langkawi island is a duty free zone in Malaysia and has close to 100 islands. It is located in the strait of Malacca. The island saw its transformation starting in the late 80s when then Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad invested in bringing tourism to the islands. There are many attractions in Langkawi which include a sky bridge and a large eagle. Many top hotel brands are present in Langkawi.
Langkawi Airport has a single 12,500 feet runway and sees services by AirAsia, Malaysia Airlines, Batik Air Malaysia, firefly, flydubai and Singapore.
Why Bengaluru – Langkawi?
Airline network planning in India has evolved over the last few years. IndiGo has had an early mover advantage of trying something new. The focus on holiday destinations these days is one where the passenger considers the total cost of holiday. Cheaper flights to Maldives had set out a revolution of sorts with passengers flocking to the island nation. Likewise, Indian carriers have seen success with Bali.
A large population with propensity to spend and splurge as compared to Chennai or Hyderabad, where the people’s spending pattern is different, could have sealed the deal. Additionally, creating a bank of holiday destinations like Bali, Mauritius and now Langkawi helps have the same bank of domestic flights feed these destinations.
Network Thoughts
IndiGo is possibly preparing its network for the induction of A350s and looking at building a network which goes beyond the traditional hub and spoke with the spokes being all capital cities or commercial hubs, where in you compete with non-stop and established carriers for the same traffic.
Is this taking a leaf out of the pocket of flydubai, Qatar or Turkish where the airlines are offering certain connections which are not available with everyone and giving the opportunity to price it higher? Prima facie, it looks like but time will tell.
Government owned Air India started flights to Birmingham and since then no airline seems to have ventured into the Tier II cities of another country until Jaffna with IndiGo and now Langkawi. It is a good beginning for Indian carriers.
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