IndiGo, India’s largest domestic airline, has been on an internationalisation journey that has taken it to the long-haul route in 2025.
As you are aware, it has been four weeks since IndiGo launched its new flights, its first international long-haul product, which currently operates between Mumbai and Amsterdam Schiphol on alternate days. I was on the first flight (Mumbai to Manchester), which brought me to Manchester. IndiGo will launch more of these flights as it inducts additional wet-leased aircraft from Norse Atlantic Airways in the coming days. The Amsterdam flight will initially operate 6 times weekly, then daily, and Manchester will become a 4 times weekly flight when the second plane arrives.
The Boeing 787-9 from Norse is a stopgap measure for IndiGo for the next 17 months, while it waits for the first of its own 60 Airbus A350-900s to arrive in the fleet. However, it was also the start of a new era of IndiGo’s hybridisation, where we will see many more “different” things than what we are accustomed to.
IndiGo announces its third route with the Boeing 787-9
On the occasion of IndiGo’s 19th Anniversary, the airline released a series of commercial announcements, including one about its plans to launch flights to London Heathrow. While London as a destination has been known for IndiGo for a while, their new slots at Heathrow were a bit of a surprise. The airline will launch direct daily flights to London Heathrow, commencing on October 26, 2025, pending regulatory approvals. The airline will operate a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft on this route. Booking for this flight has not yet opened.
What is unclear is the origin of this flight. While IndiGo was almost ready to launch flights from Delhi, it had to relocate the base of its long-haul operations to Mumbai due to the closure of Pakistani Airspace to Indian aircraft and Indian carriers. So, I don’t expect this flight to be launched from Delhi anytime soon, at least not this winter.
As for the slot, it is most definitely coming from a friend of the airline, possibly Virgin Atlantic or KLM. London Heathrow Airport denied its initial slot request for the Winter 2025 schedule in June, through its slot coordinator, ACL, and I don’t expect IndiGo to have ponied up the cash towards acquiring a slot pair.
Bottomline
IndiGo will launch flights between India and London Heathrow as of October 2025. The flights will be daily, and the third route to be operated by IndiGo in a long-haul format, using planes from Norse Atlantic Airways (Boeing 787-9) after flights to Manchester and Amsterdam.
What do you think of IndiGo’s new flights being launched to London Heathrow?
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This is great news, and well in time for the winter rush. do you know if they have onward code share with Virgin or any of the Skyteam partners to destinations in North & South America?
There is a bottomless well of demand to India from London and New York. Airlines that wait for the perfect opportunity to tap it will always find a reason to wait, while the first movers take their market share.