From Bali to Baku, the expansion of Indian airlines will tell you where Indians are travelling

Starting next month, IndiGo will increase the frequency of its flights to Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. IndiGo launched flights to Baku last August and augmenting capacity in quick succession indicates the strength of the route. In December last year, Vistara launched non-stop flights to Bali from Delhi – a first for any airline. The expanding of Indian carriers beyond the usual places is an indicator of how India is travelling and how Indians are expanding their horizons.

Indian carriers had started expanding to international shores pre-COVID. This included new connections to Male and Phuket and expanded services to Sri Lanka – the popular visa free or visa on arrival destination for Indian tourists. The tables turned in favour of post COVID in more ways than one.

First, there was a sudden surge in revenge tourism, on the back of better management of the pandemic in India along with a high rate of vaccination. Indians were willing to spend time when the Chinese were not travelling, ensuring that countries like Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam who were overly dependent on the CHinese for tourism started welcoming Indians with open arms and in many cases waiving off visa fees.

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Indian carriers expanding rapidly

Data provided by Cirium, an aviation analytics company, exclusively for this article shows that compared to pre-COVID (December 2019) shows that there are multiple new destinations where Indian carriers have started flying.

These include places like Bali and Tbilisi – where there were no flights in the past or places like Almaty, Mauritius, Tashkent or Baku where Indian carriers were not operating and only foreign carriers provided connectivity.

IndiGo leads the pack by launching 41 new city pairs on international routes. This includes the flights to CIS as well as those to new city pairs to existing destinations like Abu Dhabi where it has seen additional flights from Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Hyderabad and Chennai.

The airline also augmented capacity at other points in the Gulf and South East Asia by adding flights like Mumbai and Delhi to Dammam. Launch of flights to Bahrain, Ras-Al-Khaimah, Nairobi, Jakarta, Almaty, Tashkent, Tbilisi.

Vistara has expanded rapidly post 2019, as it got more aircraft to its fleet. This involves launching multiple flights to Kathmandu, being the only Indian carrier to operate to Mauritius and being a monopoly on the Delhi – Bali route which has become popular in a short span of time. The airline also launched flights to London, Frankfurt and Paris in the middle of the pandemic.

There are 98 such routes which did not exist in December 2019 from Indian carriers and are now operational. 22 of those are from Delhi and 20 from Mumbai, 10 from Hyderabad, six from Kochi and four from Bengaluru and Trichy.

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Some withdrawals as well

IndiGo has pulled out of routes like Bengaluru to Hong Kong and Bengaluru to Kuala Lumpur, Kozhikode to Abu Dhabi and Doha and to Bangkok from Chennai and Varanasi.

SpiceJet has the maximum pullouts with the airline vacating Ahmedabad – Muscat, Ahmedabad – Bangkok, Mumbai – Bangkok, Mumbai – Dhaka amongst others this April.

Among Air India and Air India Express, the high density routes like those to Dubai from Indian metros have shifted to Air India from Air India Express while Air India Express expands to tier II connections like Dubai from Surat, Jaipur and Indore along with Sharjah from Indore, Vijayawada and Trivandrum.

What does it tell about the travel patterns of Indians?

The expansion by airlines shows a steady mix of return of labour traffic to the gulf and a good mix of tourist destinations which Indians are thronging to, from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam to Phuket in Thailand and Bali in Indonesia to the Central Asian Republics.

Increase in flights to San Francisco with two new points—Mumbai and Bengaluru—by Air India stands out in long haul travel.

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Tail Note

The increasing economic might of middle class in India being recognised by countries with visa incentives will see more and more Indian carriers cash in, tilting the favor from foreign carriers to Indian carriers.

The induction of A321XLR in due course of time will open up more points in Europe and South East Asia with the focus then shifting on additional rights. For an Indian traveler, the next few years will be a boon for direct flights from India and hopefully competitive costs.

Ameya Joshi is an aviation analyst.