Low-cost carrier IndiGo to touch down on international destinations

India’s youngest low-cost carrier, IndiGo, is launching its international daily flights connecting Delhi to Dubai, Singapore and Bangkok from September.

Announcing its international foray on Tuesday, the company said the first international flight will start on September 1, connecting Delhi to Dubai, followed by flights to Bangkok on September 8 and Singapore on September 15. Daily flights to Bangkok and Dubai from Mumbai will start from October 2.

While the core services will remain the same — low fares, performance and hassle-free travel — the airline will offer a promotional return fare of Rs 9,999 (all inclusive) on all its international routes. IndiGo will operate its international flights from Terminal 1D at the IGI airport in Delhi.

Aditya Ghosh, president-IndiGo said, “We are India’s first low-cost carrier to connect Delhi and Mumbai to Dubai, Bangkok and Singapore. The promotional offer will be valid for 2,500 seats in all routes. Once they are full, prices of the return fare might go up to Rs 17,000. However, IndiGo will keep its promise of charging low-fares on these routes as well. We are also planning to launch daily flights connecting Mumbai to Muscat and Delhi to Kathmandu, soon.”

The new operations will create job opportunities for 200 pilots, 900 cabin crew and 500-600 engineers over the next 18 months. Other players in the same segment like Air Asia are operating international flights from Delhi to Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur at an average return fare of Rs 22,000. The players in low-cost carrier normally offer introductory return fare at Re 1 plus taxes for a period of one to one-and-a-half months.

IndiGo is the second largest airline in the country and acquires 17.6 per cent of the total market share. It presently operates 39 aircraft with 259 daily flights connecting 26 domestic destinations in all.

Sanjay Kumar, chief commercial officer, IndiGo said, “In international services, the competition is tough. We would leverage on the same service benefits like offering tour packages, user-friendly website, affordable pricing, multiple payment options, 24x7 customer service support and mobile website.”

Quizzed how much revenue percentage is IndiGo expecting, Ghosh said, “In India, the number of domestic flights available is three-times less than the number of flights available in economies like Indonesia, China and the Philippines. The passenger traffic is still growing at 15-20 per cent per annum. Our heart still lies in domestic operations and we would be strongly focusing on it this financial year. We have just started international operations and are hoping for good response.”

IndiGo would soon launch domestic flights connecting Kolkata with Indore and Raipur and from Cochin and Thiruvananthapuram, and increase the daily flights from Chennai to Delhi.