As IndiGo’s 789 Dreamliner, operated by Norse Atlantic, took off for Manchester from Mumbai early this morning, it became the 61st destination to be connected from India by Indian carriers. The IndiGo flight also helped reconnect the route which was once made operational by Jet Airways, but lasted for a limited period of time.
SpiceJet and Akasa Air each connect four international destinations from India, while the heavy lifting is done by IndiGo and Air India along with its fully owned low cost subsidiary Air India Express.IndiGo is flying to 41 international destinations, while Air India flies to 39 and Air India Express to 17. There are 28 airports in India from where international services are provided by Indian carriers.
In what is not surprising, the maximum presence by frequencies is at Dubai with Indian carriers having 342 weekly frequencies to Dubai, followed by Abu Dhabi at 209 weekly flights, shows data provided by Cirium, an aviation analytics company.
IndiGo also has the maximum spread from within India with international operations from 22 airports in India. Air India Express comes in next with international operations from 21 airports in India. Air India, on the other hand, offers international flights only from nine airports in India. SpiceJet offers international flights from ten airports within India, while Akasa Air offers from four.
Foreign carriers connect India to 71 international destinations. There are 79 international carriers which are currently flying to India. Together, there are 92 unique international destinations which are connected to India.
Of these 61, Jeddah is the only airport where all five Indian carriers fly. There remains a large list of airports which are served only by Air India amongst Indian carriers since they are served only by widebody aircraft. These include places like Frankfurt, London Gatwick, London Heathrow, Paris, Zurich amongst others.
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As Indian carriers focus on building hubs, more and more destinations will be connected by Indian carriers in future. The return of connectivity to China, whenever that happens, will add a few more points since IndiGo and Air India would look to reinstate their old flights.
On the narrowbody expansion front, the airlines are now constrained by lack of bilateral rights to immediate neighbourhoods, be it UAE, Qatar or Singapore and Thailand. The next phase of growth will come from the XLRs next year and expansion from Air India and IndiGo on the widebody network.
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