IndiGo – India’s largest carrier, has announced its newest domestic destination. The airline will fly to Pondycherry from December 20, 2024 with daily flights from Bengaluru and Hyderabad, operated by 78 seat ATR 72-600, 45 of which are part of its fleet.
This will be the 89th domestic destination for IndiGo. The flights will operate at below times
6E7142 BLR1110 – 1225PNY
6E7143 PNY1710 – 1835BLR
6E7144 HYD1505 – 1650PNY
6E7146 PNY1245 – 1430HYD
This will see one aircraft operate Bengaluru – Pondicherry – Hyderabad – Pondicherry – Bengaluru.
The airport has been on and off the air map for a very long time. Over the last decade, Air Pegasus and SpiceJet operated to Pondicherry from Bengaluru. SpiceJet later connected Hyderabad to Pondicherry. The flights were both pre-UDAN and post-UDAN but did not really take-off in a true sense in terms of the profitability needed to sustain.
Pondicherry Airport (IATA:PNY) serves the Union Territory of Puducherry – which are four unconnected parts comprising Puducherry, Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam, of which only Puducherry has an airport. The territory transferred from France to India in 1954. Puducherry sees a lot of tourists and is currently about 150 kms from Chennai airport, taking between 2.5 to 3 hours by road.
This is good news for Pondicherry and tourism there after patchy connectivity in the past. IndiGo is known to have stable flights as compared to trouble ridden SpiceJet. With a history of not closing a station, or at best having seasonal stations – IndiGo’s entry will boost tourism in Pondicherry. One of the major tourist attractions is Auroville which attracts a lot of foreign tourists. There is sizable traffic from France to Pondycherry. Without any direct flights to Chennai from Paris, the IndiGo flight could well help connectivity, especially from Bengaluru.
Network Thoughts
IndiGo has lately been focusing on smaller cities as well, where the potential to grow is relatively less. With flights from Bengaluru and Hyderabad, IndiGo is well placed for one-stop connectivity to Pondicherry from the major cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Pune, Kolkata amongst others. This further strengthens the southern hub for IndiGo.
The thought process is a replication of what happened with Mysuru. The Bengaluru – Mysuru flights did not ring a bell really due to shorter distance and alternative modes like rail and road. Flights from Hyderabad and Chennai helped with a better feed as well as growth in Origin – Destination traffic. With Pondicherry, not having a Chennai – Pondicherry flight makes more sense. However, SpiceJet has not been able to make these routes work. With a broader network than SpiceJet, will it work for IndiGo?
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