By Daanish Anand
On the back of expansion in international routes, Indian low-cost carrier IndiGo is confident about this festive season. IndiGo, the largest airline in terms of market share and fleet size in India, has added over 20 international routes in the past six months.
The expansion included new routes and the resumption of certain routes to South East Asia. It forayed for the first time to Central Asia & Africa. Jakarta, Nairobi, Almaty, Tashkent, Baku, and Tbilisi are the new international destinations added to the network.
The airline has also expanded international connections from Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, and Goa. IndiGo will be restarting flights from Delhi to Hong Kong and Delhi-Male operations from November 1.
Vinay Malhotra, Head of Global Sales, IndiGo, said the airline is now flying to 32 international destinations, and strategic codeshare partnerships with eight international airlines have further enhanced the global presence.
“With the upcoming festive season, new routes and alliances usher in multiple possibilities, granting seamless access to a diverse array of international destinations,” Malhotra said.
With the Turkish Airlines alliance, IndiGo passengers can take connecting flights from Istanbul to Chicago, Washington, Boston, New York, and San Francisco, 33 destinations in Europe and Morocco.
IndiGo also recently expanded its codeshare with British Airways with three additional routes. Thiruvananthapuram, Rajkot, and Vadodara have been added through connecting flights from New Delhi or Mumbai.
IndiGo has codeshare partnerships with eight airlines. The partnerships are with Qantas, Air France, KLM, American Airlines, Qatar Airways, and Virgin Atlantic.
Last month CNBC-TV18 exclusively spoke to Pieter Elbers, CEO of IndiGo. He said the airline has added new capacity, new flights and already wet-leased two widebody aircraft. “We’re taking mitigating measures in the supply chain. We’re extending certain existing leases and also wet leasing 11 new aircraft temporarily. Demand is strong, IndiGo wants to ensure that passengers get the airlift that’s needed. Expect to carry 100 million customers this year.”
IndiGo’s domestic market share for September stood at 63.4% as per the data released by India’s aviation regulator DGCA.