After Air India, IndiGo joins cancellation wave as West Asia crisis, weak demand hit global routes – Firstpost

IndiGo, India’s largest carrier by fleet and market share, recently announced the cancellation of flights to Manchester and the return of one of its six Dreamliner aircraft at the end of August. This comes on the back of Air India making large-scale cancellations starting June 01. IndiGo, which is weathering June, is cancelling additional flights from July 01, as per the flight schedule change publication Aero Routes.

The massive cancellations come amidst the likelihood of the West Asia peace plan falling apart and Iran and the USA engaging in an exchange of blows again. The July to September quarter (Q2-FY27) is traditionally a weak quarter in India with monsoons in the country and the restart of the academic session of schools.

Most of these flights had sustained the seasonality in the past, largely due to the MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions) market. With the appeal from the Prime Minister to not travel abroad for a year in view of foreign currency conservation, large corporations have publicly stated that they would be reducing travel and curtailing avoidable travel, shifting to online tools instead.

What gets cancelled?

The airline is cancelling flights to Langkawi, where it operates from Bengaluru. The three-month cancellation in the weak July-August-September quarter will see Langkawi not being serviced by IndiGo.

For the same period, IndiGo will also cancel flights to Hong Kong. Currently, Hong Kong is served by IndiGo only from Delhi, and this cancellation would mean termination of services to Hong Kong for the three-month period. Krabi in Thailand will also see a suspension of services as IndiGo cancels its daily service from Delhi.

IndiGo started services to Krabi from Bengaluru, eventually shifting it to Delhi before canning it completely starting July 01, until the end of September. Cancellations will also impact Siem Reap and Ho Chi Minh City, both served exclusively from Kolkata, with the flights being pulled out between July and September, which will lead to the destinations falling off IndiGo’s route map. IndiGo’s recently launched service to Shanghai from Kolkata also sees cancellations for the same period.

The airline will also reduce services to Phuket from daily to four times a week from Bengaluru and to Singapore from double daily to 10 times a week in July from Bengaluru. Air India Express recently started services between Bengaluru and Phuket, becoming the third operator on the route.

While IndiGo cancels Langkawi, its other destination in Malaysia — Penang — will see a reduction from four to three services a week between July and September. IndiGo serves Penang from Chennai. Chennai will also see cuts in services to Reunion Island until the end of September.

The airline launched recently with thrice-a-week service, which drops to two times a week. The Asean region sees capacity reduction across the board, with Delhi-Phuket seeing a reduction in frequency from double daily to daily, while flights to Phuket from Kolkata are being halved from six to three per week. Flights to Bangkok also see the cut, with Hyderabad-Singapore reduced from daily to thrice-a-week service, while flights from Mumbai are reduced from thrice a day to double daily.

Flights to Singapore are also impacted with the cancellation of the daily flight from Kolkata and a reduction in frequencies from Hyderabad from daily to thrice a week, while Trichy sees a reduction from 11 times a week to daily frequency. The airline is also cancelling its one-stop flight to Bali from Delhi, while it continues to operate from Mumbai (via Chennai) and Bengaluru (non-stop).

What is happening?

The sectors that are seeing a reduction or cancellation give an insight into the markets that are impacted. High leisure markets like Phuket or Langkawi are where the impact is the highest. These are also places where cargo revenues traditionally don’t help cover the cost of operations. This also includes longer routes like those to Hong Kong and Bali (Denpasar). The larger cities and routes continue to sustain, albeit with a frequency reduction, while the tier-two cities get the axe.

The cancellations impact its mini-hub at Kolkata, from where it has launched multiple destinations in Asean, with the domestic network feeding its international network to Asean via Kolkata.

IndiGo would have cancelled flights to Copenhagen, Manchester, Siem Reap, Hong Kong, Krabi, and Ho Chi Minh City, some for a temporary period as of now. The airline has already stopped operations to Almaty, Tashkent, Baku, and Tbilisi as the airspace remains out of bounds due to a mix of the Pakistani airspace closure and the West Asia war. How long this will continue is anybody’s guess.