Six years later, IndiGo is back to holding slots at Manchester (and Gatwick) – NetworkThoughts

IndiGo, which started operations with Norse Atlantic wet/damp leased 787-9 Dreamliner to Bangkok, has already announced expansion of services to Manchester and Amsterdam from the middle of Summer schedule, as the airline signs up for more aircraft from Norse Atlantic. 

As the schedule transitions to Northern Summer, ACL the slot coordinator for multiple airports including Manchester has released the Start of Season report which lists IndiGo’s flights to Manchester. Six years since the airline first filed for flights to Manchester with the Airbus A330, the airline is back on the filing flights but this time with a specific plan.

The start of season report published by Slot Coordinator ACL lists 234 movements with 79092 seats to Delhi, India. The slot holding starts in the 14th week of the season which begins June 30, 2025. The filing indicates thrice a week operations, something which the airline has already confirmed. 

IndiGo has been allotted Terminal 2 at Manchester. As per Manchester Airport, more than 500,000 people of Indian heritage live within two hours of the airport. Virgin Atlantic and KLM operate from Terminal 2. These are IndiGo partners and a potential codeshare beyond Manchester cannot be ruled out. Virgin Atlantic had planned flights to Delhi from Manchester which were to begin in December 2020, but never started as the year was a washout due to COVID.

IndiGo is also holding slots at London Gatwick from the same week with flights from Delhi. While slots at Manchester are allotted at same time on all days, IndiGo has not had such a luck at Gatwick where its slots are scattered, reflecting the busy nature of the airport. Norse Atlantic has a base at London Gatwick.

Bank of flights 

Air India has had a functional bank of flights since it moved to Delhi from Mumbai. As it started inducting more and more aircraft, the airline built a very functional hub at Delhi with departures to Europe post 1300 hours and before 1500 hours and arrivals between 0700 hours and 0900 hours. This ensured that the airline was able to connect domestic passengers to points in Europe via Delhi in an efficient manner. The biggest advantage which Air India has is being under a single roof at Terminal 3. 

As IndiGo launches more and more international flights and caters to connecting passengers, it will have to figure out the best possible ways to transfer passengers from T1 to T3, considering T2 will be out of action soon. This gets us to the next question, about the bank of flights? 

Will IndiGo opt for going head-on against Air India with an afternoon departure bank from Delhi? The airport has constraints with slots at most times of the day and that is a factor to consider. Will it go hand in hand with the foreign carriers bank with midnight departures, reaching Europe in the early hours and leave from Europe around 1000 hours, reaching India in the evening? The night time departure has a benefit of better outbound connectivity, but the return flight has a disadvantage to an extent. However, this bank will help connect to partners, be it with KLM at Amsterdam or Virgin Atlantic at Manchester to carry traffic beyond these places. 

Network Thoughts

Over the next 12-18 months, IndiGo will add more destinations to its international network which will be a mix of narrowbody (including XLR) and widebody flights. As it focuses on Delhi as its first large hub, it will need to have a bank of flights. Currently its flights to CIS are all redeye departures but these are short ones and hence does not have a large impact on connectivity, unlike those to Europe which begin in July. 

In all probability, I see IndiGo opting for a bank at night in the 2300 – 0200 hours departure from Delhi and the red eye domestic flights being adjusted to ensure good connectivity to most important points in India. We are weeks away from the opening up of the flights for sale and the timings would be the most interesting thing, with the rest being already known.

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