IndiGo, Akasa Expand Abroad as Air India Scales Back

IndiGo and Akasa are looking at expanding their international footprint while Air India, the oldest carrier in India, is temporarily looking to scale down its international operations. 

On Tuesday IndiGo announced that it will start operations from Mumbai to Tbilisi, Tashkent and Almaty. Akasa announced its foray into South East Asia with a daily connection linking Mumbai, the financial capital of India, with a daily service to Phuket, Thailand. Earlier this month IndiGo had also announced that it will start a daily service from India to Heathrow from October 26. This will be the second destination that IndiGo will connect from India in the UK having started flights from Mumbai to Manchester in early July. 

IndiGo is to fly four times a week between Mumbai and Tashkent from September 1 while the following day a four times a week service from the financial capital of India will operate to Almaty. It also recently commenced flights between Mumbai and Tbilisi.

IndiGo already operates direct flights from Delhi to Tashkent, Almaty and Tbilisi since 2023.

“Building on the successful operations from New Delhi to Tbilisi, Almaty and Tashkent, we are pleased to now connect all these destinations with Mumbai. Recently, we have also commenced our long-haul flights from Mumbai to Manchester and Amsterdam, marking our entry into Europe. With these, IndiGo will further strengthen connectivity from the country’s financial capital to destinations within India, as well as across the globe,” said Vinay Malhotra, Head of Global Sales, IndiGo. 

India and Thailand to see one more airline operating 

The Akasa service to Phuket will start on September 20. Akasa joins IndiGo and Air India which already operate from India to Phuket. The announcement comes days after Nok Air Thailand restarted services from Bangkok to Mumbai and the southern Indian city of Hyderabad. 

Indian carriers’ flights  to Phuket have been made possible because India and Thailand recently concluded an air services bilateral agreement enhancing not only the seats that the airlines of the two countries can  operate but also new destinations including Phuket. 

Air India to temporarily withdraw service linking India and Washington 

The uptick in international flights comes even as Air India announced that it will withdraw its operations to Washington from September 1. It announced that the Delhi-Washington flight will cease to operate “due to operational factors to ensure reliability and integrity of its route network.” 

The airline added that the suspension is primarily driven by the planned shortfall in its fleet as it commenced retrofitting 26 of its Boeing 787-8 aircraft last month. “This extensive retrofit programme, aimed at significantly enhancing customer experience, necessitated a prolonged unavailability of multiple aircraft at least till the end of 2026,” the airline said. 

Like many global airlines, Air India too is seeing a delay in its retrofitting program for it’s aircraft. 

The closure of Pakistan airspace to Indian aircraft also weighed in on the airline’s decision to suspend the flight to Washington. At the moment it offers non-stop flights from India to six destinations in North America and Canada including Toronto and Vancouver. 

Closure of Pakistan airspace also saw IndiGo withdraw flights 

IndiGo withdrew operations from Delhi to Tashkent due to closure of the Pakistan airspace although it continues to connect Tbilisi from the Indian capital.

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Ashwini Phadnis

Former Senior Deputy Editor at Business Line (aka The Hindu Business Line)

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