In early June, IndiGo announced long-term partnerships with KLM, Air France, Virgin Atlantic and Delta, on the sidelines of IATA’s AGM in Delhi. This came within days of the government announcing a last and final extension of the B777s, which IndiGo has been operating on a damp lease from Turkish Airlines. The airline deploys the B777 to Istanbul from Delhi and Mumbai. Last week, IndiGo announced the first of the tie-ups coming into force and in this case, it coincided with the increase in frequency to Amsterdam from Mumbai, where the airline launched thrice-a-week operations in early July.
The airline announced the launch of 30 codeshare destinations beyond Amsterdam in the UK and Europe with flights available from August 11, and flights going on sale on August 01. However, only 16 destinations have gone live for sale as of now.
IndiGo offers flights to 45 destinations via Istanbul with Turkish Airlines, which includes those in Europe, UK, Africa and the United States. IndiGo currently places its code on 31 destinations in Europe, served by Turkish airlines. These destinations were progressively added over a period of time. These include four (Birmingham, Edinburgh, Gatwick, Heathrow) in the UK, and the rest 27 in Europe.
First lot of KLM destinations
Much like how the Turkish Airlines’ codeshare destinations started with a handful at a time, the KLM codeshare is also starting with 16 destinations at a time (London, Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Cardiff, Glasgow, Aberdeen,Prague, Copenhagen, Brussels, Helsinki, Stockholm, Lisbon, Paris, Gothenburg), with more to follow in due course of time, though the announcement was for 30.
The first set of 16 code-share destinations feature a mix of the expected, large European airports like Paris, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Birmingham, but also smaller, unexpected airports like Newcastle, Aberdeen (both in the UK) and Gothenburg (Sweden’s second largest airport after Stockholm). Ten of the 16 announced KLM code-share destinations overlap with IndiGo’s list of TK code-shared destinations, while the six new ones are Manchester (also served non-stop by 6E), Aberdeen, Cardiff, Glasgow, Gothenburg and Newcastle. With 14 more yet to be online, there remains a possibility of more new destinations coming up. Manchester is one of those six ‘new’ KLM codeshare destinations. Of the other five TK, serves only GOT (twice daily)
In most cases, the Turkish connection times are hard to beat, however, there is a difference between transiting at Istanbul versus transiting at Amsterdam. For flights to the European Union, a transit at Istanbul merely means changing planes and utilising that layover for shopping or eating. However, changing planes at Amsterdam means completing immigration formalities since European Union / Schengen rules warrant a person to complete immigration at the first point of entry, which in this case will be Amsterdam.
However, there also is a difference in product. The flights to Istanbul are on narrowbody A320 family aircraft starting September 01, while those to Amsterdam are on dual class 787-9 Dreamliners (Norse Atlantic on damp lease to IndiGo) with hot meals included in the ticket, unlike flights to Istanbul, with the IndiGoStretch cabin even having alcoholic beverages as part of service, while economy class passengers can buy alcoholic beverages.
Air India and ME3
Significant traffic from India is carried by Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways (known as ME3) via their hubs at Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha, respectively. There also remains the Air India factor which has a functional hub at Delhi.
Most airports except Helsinki, Gothenburg, Cardiff and Aberdeen have a presence by ME3. Air India has a presence at Birmingham, Copenhagen, Gatwick, Heathrow, Milan, Vienna and Zurich. The idea seems to offer presence to the unconnected but with some traffic (likely student traffic) and the well connected and voluminous and snatch some traffic away from competition.
While Air India has built a functional hub at Delhi, IndiGo will take time to build one in India. Until then IndiGo will rely on building partnerships outside India, where eventually it can offer flights from multiple points in India. Going by its current announced partnerships, it would not be surprising if they look at building capacity at Amsterdam, Paris and London.
Future
IndiGo is expected to start inducting its own A350s from 2027. The first 30 planes will be delivered from 2027 until 2032, with an MoU already in place for another 30 planes beyond 2032. With KLM (Amsterdam), Air France (Paris CDG), Virgin Atlantic (London Heathrow) partnerships, the airline may look at operating flights from multiple Indian cities to Amsterdam, Paris and London. Both Amsterdam and London Heathrow have major slot challenges and while Paris CDG is a Level 3 airport indicating slot constraints, the situation is not as bad as the other two. However, geopolitical issues, airlines going down are some of the reasons which opens up slots and then there always remains a possibility of leasing or buying slots.
This article has been co-authored with Ro Lakkamraju – a student at the University of Texas at Dallas, Trinidade Gois – Sound Engineer and Aviation Enthusiast and Ujjwal Gupta who contributed to both data research and writing. The data is updated as of August 03, 2025.