IndiGo, India’s largest carrier, is adding Bikaner to its destination list. The airline has said that this will be the 90th domestic destination for the airline and 127th overall, when it launches flights between Delhi and Bikaner starting February 07, 2025. The airline will operate Daily and deploy the ATR 72-600 aircraft on this route.
6E7442 DEL0825 – 0945BKB
6E7443 BKB1005 – 1120DEL
This will be the fifth destination for IndiGo in the western state of Rajasthan, where it already operates to Jaipur, Udaipur, Jodhpur and seasonally to Jaisalmer. This looks like an effort to increase utilisation ex-Delhi since flight tracking websites show the Delhi based ATRs of IndiGo being poorly utilised as compared to the ATR network in the south.
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Bikaner Airport (IATA: BKB) is a civil enclave at a frontline Indian Air Force station named NAL. The airport can cater to two ATR 72 aircraft simultaneously but currently sees thrice a week service to Delhi by government owned Alliance Air. The airport serves the historic city of Bikaner, which is famous for various food items.
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There aren’t many IndiGo stations which see only one flight a day. Bikaner is an interesting addition to that. It needs to be seen how the flights perform, especially as we are close to summer – a time which is not so popular to travel to the sand dunes or the desert cities.
If the flights work well, will the airline be able to add capacity with Airbus flights? While the airport infrastructure is a challenge, such a challenge at places like Darbhanga or Barielly have been overcome with the help of Indian Air Force making some portion of IAF area available on a temporary basis to handle flights. There could well be a significant demand between Mumbai and Bikaner.
One wonders if Alliance Air will cease operations to Bikaner. Alliance Air is hard pressed for capacity and the demand between Delhi and Bilkaner will see a shift to IndiGo as it provides a wider network as compared to a pure play Origin – Destination demand which Alliance Air caters to.
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