AirAsia India recently inducted the twentieth aircraft in its fleet. They are now technically eligible to start international operations, and they fly to 21 cities in India.
AirAsia India will be closing down the Bengaluru-Surat route from January 14, 2018. They started the route in May this year but looks like they cannot compete with IndiGo on the route.
Instead, AirAsia India will start flights to Mumbai, four years after they made the announcement. Air Asia will operate one daily red-eye flight on the Mumbai-Bengaluru route, with the following schedule,
I5306 BLR2240 – 0033 (+1) BOM 320 D
I5308 BOM0110 – 0300BLR 320 D
Introductory fares start at INR 3366 for roundtrip economy.
AirAsia India Mumbai to Bengaluru
Can’t get my mind over why would they launch
A) A single flight on a highly competitive route
B) A red eye with inconvenient timings
[Ed’s Take: The single flight is to experiment with Mumbai, and the red-eye flight perhaps may be coming because the slot may have been available at that time]
AirAsia has an exciting history with Mumbai. AirAsia X used to operate flights on Mumbai-Kuala Lumpur route which they withdrew in February 2012. Then AirAsia X operated flights on Mumbai-Bali route from May 2017, but they stopped eventually. Third time’s a charm? To draw a parallel, AirAsia India has had three CEOs since they started operations.
Where it the 20th plane? When did they induct?
The route could be used as a outbound to connect Air Asia International Flights out of Bangalore to Kuala Lumpur or other destinations.
Any idea if they would fly out of T1B or T2 in Mumbai?
I think Mumbai Airport should make it compulsory for all new comers to fly wide body aircraft. That way eventually we can see capacity expansion in Mumbai. Get slot only for wide body
Too little, too late