India’s largest airline, IndiGo is on a massive international expansion as the air carrier has announced direct flights to Kenya, Indonesia and Georgia in the past few days. With the recent announcement of direct flights to Tbilisi, Georgia, IndiGo airline is now connected to 29 international destinations and 107th overall. The budget air carrier earlier this year announced the launch of direct flights to six new destinations in Africa and Central Asia, including Nairobi, Tbilisi and Tashkent. Once these routes become operational, the budget airline will connect a total of 32 international destinations as compared to 26 before the announcement.
The rapid expansion plan will make IndiGo the second largest Indian airline operating on international routes after Air India by routes. However, by passenger capacity, IndiGo is now the largest Indian airline operating international flights. In the domestic market, the airline is still the largest air carrier by a far margin, with a 55 percent market share.
Direct flights to Africa, Central Asia
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The airline is working on a “huge” international expansion plan as the air carrier has now announced direct flights connecting Nairobi in Kenya, Jakarta in Indonesia and Tbilisi in Georgia via Delhi/Mumbai. Later, IndiGo will also add flights from Delhi to Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and resume flights to Hong Kong. In August, IndiGo will connect Delhi to Tbilisi, Georgia and Baku, Azerbaijan and in September to Tashkent, Uzbekistan and Almaty, Kazakhstan, IndiGo said in a release.
Codeshare with Turkish Airlines
IndiGo is strengthening its connectivity to Europe through codeshare connections with Turkish Airlines. Currently, it provides connectivity to 33 destinations in Europe via Istanbul. IndiGo said, “As part of the codeshare partnership with Turkish Airlines, IndiGo will shortly offer connectivity to North America, subject to final regulatory approval.” The airline entered into a codeshare with Turkish Airlines to start flights to Istanbul, Turkey.
Later, they extended the partnership to deploy the first wide-body aircraft, the wet-leased Boeing 777, on the route. While initially the airline deployed aircraft painted in Turkish Airlines livery, it was later painted in Indigo’s blue and white livery, making it the first aircraft to be used by Turkish Airlines. The brand is the third airline in India to operate wide body aircraft after Air India and Vistara and the second airline to operate the B777.
international expansion plan
The expansion comes at a time when there is growing demand for international travel to and from India, as well as the government’s efforts to develop an international aviation hub in the country. IndiGo said it will “add an impressive 174 new weekly international flights between June and September 2023, adding new destinations, routes and frequencies.”
“The addition of these exciting new destinations, new direct flight routes, increased flight frequencies and strategic codeshare partnerships will help us expand our footprint across four continents with our first forays into Africa and Central Asia. IndiGo CEO Peter Albers said, “We will now touch 32 international destinations directly (up from 26) in addition to our 78 domestic destinations.”