Indian low-cost carrier IndiGo announced on March 6, 2025, that it has selected Amsterdam (AMS) and Manchester (MAN) as its first two destinations in western Europe.
Both services, which will start in July 2025 subject to regulatory approval, will be operated thrice weekly by Boeing 787-9 aircraft damp-leased from Norse Atlantic Airways.
Damp lease agreements, through which the lessor provides the aircraft as well as the pilots and maintenance services for a set amount of time. This is a formula which is often used by airlines that wish to fill a capacity gap at relatively short notice.
The first of these damp-leased Dreamliners was inducted into service by IndiGo on March 1, 2025, and was immediately deployed on the Delhi (DEL) to Bangkok (BKK) route. Three more Norse Atlantic Airways’ B787-9 aircraft are expected to join IndiGo’s fleet before the end of 2025.
While the launch of the Amsterdam route was widely anticipated, the addition of Manchester to IndiGo’s route network comes as much more of a surprise since it was not among the airports in which IndiGo had started recruiting staff.
In January 2025, it was reported that the Indian airline had opened an internal process to find station managers for three European airports: London-Heathrow (LHR), Paris-Charles De Gaulle (CDG), and Amsterdam-Schiphol (AMS).
With the launch of this service, IndiGo will become the only airline providing a nonstop link between India and the north of England.
So far, IndiGo’s only toehold in the European continent was its Istanbul (IST) service, which is operated in partnership with Turkish Airlines with two Boeing 777 also wet-leased from the Turkish flag carrier. In Istanbul, IndiGo’s passengers are able to connect to its partner’s vast European network through codesharing services.
IndiGo’s European network is expected to keep growing. The airline has 30 Airbus A350-900 widebody and 69 A321XLR narrowbody aircraft on order. The latter will allow IndiGo to link India to smaller European cities nonstop.
