On August 4, 2025, IndiGo—India’s largest airline by market share—officially announced that it will commence daily direct flights from India to London Heathrow Airport (LHR). These services will be operated with leased Boeing 787‑9 Dreamliner aircraft, marking the airline’s entry into long-haul connectivity to the UK capital. ACL, the slot co-ordination company responsible for slot management for Heathrow, announced that IndiGo has leased 14 slots (7 pairs) at Heathrow from Virgin Atlantic for flights from Mumbai. IndiGo has now formally opened the flights to Heathrow for sale starting October 26, 2025. The airline will operate Daily flights from Mumbai, from where it already operates to Amsterdam and Manchester, along with starting flights to Copenhagen from October 08, 2025.
The timings are split across days, as is the case with slots at Heathrow.
6E001 BOM1445 – 1920LHR 123467
6E002 LHR2130 – 1145(+1)BOM 12367
6E002 LHR2110 – 1120(+1)BOM 4
6E001 BOM1310 – 1745LHR 5
6E002 LHR1950 – 1005(+1)BOM 5
The timings does not gel very well for onward connectivity to North America with Virgin Atlantic and Delta, as and when this tie up is done. The airline has already tied up with KLM to offer codeshare flights beyond Amsterdam and announced partnership with Air France, KLM, Delta and Virgin Atlantic in June this year.
This is a one aircraft rotation and will cater to the Origin – Destination traffic between Mumbai and London. However, it is out of sync with its own bank of flights which have a 0400ish departure from India and a post mid-night return with international sectors being added or re-timed based on these flights to Amsterdam, Manchester and now Copenhagen. The airline would have to rely on what is available rather than being choosy about the slots. A 0400ish departure from India would have not only helped with International to International connections, but also helped with carrying traffic beyond Heathrow with Virgin Atlantic and Delta Air lines.
Slots
The airline has been filling slots at London Heathrow for a long time, including just before the pandemic when it intended to operate to London Stansted from Delhi and Bengaluru with a tech stop. IndiGo had asked for slots at London Heathrow for Winter 2025, but no slots were allocated to the airline.
Flights will operate to Terminal 3 at Heathrow, the same terminal from where Virgin Atlantic operates.
Network Thoughts
Indian carriers have always had a pull towards London in general and London Heathrow in particular. Jet Airways, Air Sahara and Kingfisher Airlines went out of their way to start flights to London Heathrow, one of the most congested and unique airports in the world. It is no surprise then that Indian LCCs, SpiceJet and IndiGo have time and again filed for slots at London Heathrow and other London area airports like Gatwick and Stansted and at times even having an allocation in place, pre COVID. IndiGo had filed for slots with A321 with a technical stop and also with an Airbus A330 in the past.
London has always had a special place for Indian carriers and IndiGo will now become the second operational carrier from India at London Heathrow, with the other being Air India, which recently upped its game at Heathrow.
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