IndiGo does route rejig

IndiGo is withdrawing its Mumbai-Singapore and Delhi-Singapore flights as  a part of route rationalisation exercise. High fuel costs and intense competition on these sectors are said to be the reason behind the move. The airline will redeploy its planes to start new services from Hyderabad and Chennai to Singapore.

IndiGo has not informed travel agents regarding this plan. However, the airline is not accepting web bookings on Singapore flights from Mumbai and Delhi beyond March. Similarly no flights are available on Mumbai-Bangkok sector from March.

The airline made its international foray in September 2011 connecting Delhi with Dubai. Gradually it added flights to Dubai, Bangkok, Muscat and Singapore from Mumbai and Dubai. With its low fares and stress on on time performance the airline was successful in weaning away business from established carriers. However intense competition and limited distribution network in Singapore has impacted the airline, industry sources said. The airline does not use the global distribution system which full service carriers use to sell and distribute tickets.

Air India, Jet Airways and Singapore Airlines have daily flights from Mumbai and Delhi to Singapore. From Mumbai Singapore Airlines operates three daily flights and from Delhi it has two daily flights. IndiGo is the only low cost airline serving the two routes.

In a statement the airline said " IndiGo is not shutting down Bangkok or Singapore operations. We will soon launch Chennai-Singapore route followed by Hyderabad-Singapore route. IndiGo has recently increased its frequency on the Delhi-Bangkok route to double daily and launched Kolkata-Bangkok route.''

At the launch of Delhi-Singapore flight in September 2011  IndiGo president Aditya Ghosh had said  airline  plans to add services to Singapore from Chennai and Kolkata within the next few months. Services from other Indian cities including Bangalore and Hyderabad are also under consideration but the initial priority will be Chennai and Kolkata.  Ghosh has also indicated of increasing  capacity on the Delhi-Singapore and Mumbai-Singapore sectors, according to a Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation report.