AirAsia follows Vistara's foosteps, will add flights from Delhi

The carrier is exploring flights to Imphal, Kolkata, Lucknow, Raipur and Pune from its soon to be launched Delhi hub

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AirAsia is exploring flights to Imphal, Kolkata, Lucknow, Raipur and Pune from its soon-to-be-launched Delhi hub.

The airline will begin operations from Delhi on May 21 with flights to Bengaluru, Goa and Guwahati. “Initially, the airline will have two aircraft in Delhi and will gradually scale up over the next few months,” said an aviation source.

AirAsia India —- a joint venture between Malaysian low-cost airline AirAsia, Tata Sons and Telestra Tradeplace — began operations from Bengaluru last June. At present, it has five Airbus A320 planes, of which it utilises three. AirAsia has a market share of one per cent.

AirAsia’s entry to Delhi comes on the heels of Vistara’s expansion. Last week, Vistara had announced it would launch flights from Delhi to Lucknow and Bengaluru, and to connect Bengaluru-Mumbai. Vistara operates 197 weekly flights and the number will go up as it commences the new services.

AirAsia India did not respond to an email query on the topic. In a statement last week, the airline’s Chief Executive Officer Mittu Chandilya had said: “Our entry into the Delhi market is a sign of confidence in our business model and in our performance that we can come into a highly saturated market and help expand the market by providing connectivity to the underserved. The new sectors will allow more people to experience air travel in India. We will continue to build our network throughout India through both our northern and southern hubs.”

The current regulations, which are set to be revised, require airlines to deploy one per cent capacity on routes within remote areas.  

“Unfortunately, the southern portion of India – where AirAsia India is (now)  based - has no such  routes,” said aviation blog The Flying Engineer.