Air India and IndiGo are (almost) getting their flights back

In May, Air India decided to rejig its international network to reduce flying amidst the higher cost due to increased fuel prices in the West Asia war. Soon after, IndiGo joined in with cancellations during the July to September period. Both airlines not only focused on international cancellations but also domestic ones to an extent.

Both airlines had said that these changes are temporary and they would review the network to reverse the changes earlier, if needed. However, the west asia war has dragged on much longer than what anybody would have anticipated leading to higher prices of oil continuing rather than reducing. Data shared by Cirium, an aviation analytics company, exclusively for this article shows that most flights are back. However, both Air India and IndiGo have closed one destination each with Air India not returning to Chicago and IndiGo not returning to Ho Chi Minh City.

Here is a region wise breakdown of what the airlines said and what they are to offer this winter.

North America

Air India had suspended operations to Chicago and reduced frequencies to San Francisco, Toronto and Vancouver.

Air India continues its suspension of flights to Chicago, a route it once operated daily at its peak. However, the airline has got back its flights to San Francisco with full force of 10 times a week, while Toronto has become non-stop thanks to the induction of 787-9 Dreamliners. Its flights to Vancouver also see restoration of frequency to Daily.

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The airline had temporarily increased its services to Newark to Daily, which have been scaled down to thrice a week, while it returns on the Delhi – Newark route with four flights a week. The airline has also restored its daily service to New York – JFK from Mumbai, completing its North America operations.

Europe

Air India had also reduced flights to Paris, Copenhagen, Milan, Vienna, Zurich and Rome. Air India will continue to have one flight a day to Paris from Delhi, down from the earlier two. Flights to other destinations like Copenhagen (4x weekly), Milan (Daily), Rome (4x weekly), Zurich (5x weekly), Vienna (4x weekly) are either restored or see an increase in frequency.

This comes amidst IndiGo moving out of the widebody space with all the aircraft returning to Norse Atlantic by the end of October, at its peak IndiGo operated to Copenhagen, Manchester, London Heathrow and Amsterdam. The Amsterdam operations shift to the XLR while the rest are cancelled. IndiGo competed with Air India on routes to Copenhagen and London Heathrow.

Australia

Air India has put a special spotlight on Melbourne, not only restoring but also increasing both frequency and capacity. The airline is deploying the B777 to Melbourne with frequency going up to 11 flights a week, while Sydney sees restoration to daily services. This comes amidst Qantas also offering services between Delhi and Melbourne along with Sydney and Bengaluru.

Far East, Southeast Asia and SAARC

Air India had cancelled flights to Shanghai and between Chennai and Singapore, Mumbai – Dhaka, Delhi – Male, while reducing frequencies on Delhi – Singapore, Mumbai – Singapore, Delhi – Bangkok, Mumbai – Bangkok, Delhi – Kuala Lumpur, Delhi – Ho Chi Minh City, Delhi – Kathmandu, Delhi – Dhaka, Mumbai – Colombo and Delhi – Colombo.

Air India has reinstated flights to Shanghai, and increased frequencies between Delhi – Singapore, Mumbai – Singapore, Delhi – Bangkok,Mumbai – Bangkok, Delhi – Kuala Lumpur, Delhi – Ho Chi Minh City while the Chennai – Singapore services have been transferred to subsidiary Air India Express.

IndiGo cancelled flights to Langkawi, Krabi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong and Shanghai. Barring Ho CHi Minh City, flights to all other cities are resuming, indicating a pull out from Ho Chi Minh city. The airline has already announced flights to Hanoi from Mumbai, the third connection to Hanoi from India by IndiGo.

The major change has been IndiGo’s pull-out from the damp leased widebody market, which it entered with much fanfare. The airline had pulled out of the Copenhagen market even before the West Asia war started, clearly an indicator that the Pakistani airspace closure was hurting the airline. The West Asia war along with the increased fuel prices only made it worse, leading to the airline completely pulling out of the space. However, IndiGo has 60 A350s on order whose delivery would start in late 2027 or early 2028. The speed of induction will not be as fast as the narrowbody aircraft and possibly much slower than the damp-leased induction as well. The realities of 2028 could be different than today in an ever changing world. It is well established that there remains a large market for outbound travel from India, but Indian carriers have not been able to completely capitalise on it. Will the tide turn under the new leaders at Air India and IndiGo?

Ameya Joshi is an aviation analyst.