There have been a few weeks of all the major no-frills Indian carriers going after the Middle Eastern markets. There has been good reason for it. While the Middle East is teeming with Indian Diaspora, and flight launches into the Middle East are no big deal, most of the landscape has been settled for a while—IndiGo and Air India (group) and then everyone else.

However, with Akasa’s arrival on the scene and their recent approval to go international, they’ve shaken the apple cart, trying to launch as many sectors into the Middle East as they can, while they can lay their hands on bilateral rights and slots. Here is a recap of their recent launches.

IndiGo and Air India Express have been adding additional flights at a fast clip, with a contest amongst all three to corner as many seats as possible from the remaining rights to fly between the countries. Let’s look at where IndiGo has added flights over the past 6-8 weeks since this three-way contest intensified.

IndiGo already operates to a large number of destinations in the Middle East from India. Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah in the UAE, Jeddah, Dammam and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Doha in Qatar, Muscat in Oman are the destinations that are served by IndiGo.

IndiGo launches additional flights between Mumbai and Jeddah effective August 15, 2024

IndiGo announced the launch of additional daily, non-stop flights between Mumbai and Jeddah, effective August 15, 2024. This will double the airline’s frequency of flights between the city pairs. Here are the timings of the new flight.

Coincidentally, Akasa launched 12x weekly flights on this route. Air India, between itself and Vistara, also has two flights on the route, and IndiGo was the only carrier operating just one frequency a day on this route. So, this was a reaction to the market’s evolution rather than a pre-emptive measure, which is more of IndiGo’s style these days.

IndiGo announces direct flights between Bengaluru and Abu Dhabi effective August 1, 2024

IndiGo also announced a new direct flight between Bengaluru and Abu Dhabi. Commencing on August 01, 2024, the Bengaluru-Abu Dhabi flight will operate six times a week. With the launch of this new flight, IndiGo will now operate 75 weekly flights from Abu Dhabi to 10 cities in India, further strengthening connectivity to the capital of the United Arab Emirates. Here is the schedule for this flight.

IndiGo announces direct flights from Mangaluru, Coimbatore and Tiruchirappalli to Abu Dhabi, launching in August 2024

IndiGo announced direct flights to Abu Dhabi from Mangaluru, Coimbatore, and Tiruchirappalli. The Abu Dhabi to Mangaluru route flights will operate daily from August 09, 2024, and the Tiruchirappalli to Abu Dhabi will operate four times a week, starting August 11, 2024. Starting from August 10, the direct flights from Coimbatore, will operate thrice weekly.

Bottomline

IndiGo is on a tear with International Expansion. Under their new strategy, the mandate is clear: to lay out as many International routes as the airline can to increase its international market share. This latest spur of announcements just means that they are taking away as much of the market as they can at the earliest.

What do you think of IndiGo’s international growth? 

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