Indian LCC IndiGo has opened ticket sales for its first flights to Central Asia, with two new destinations scheduled to launch in August.
Service to Georgia’s capital Tbilisi will begin on Aug. 8, followed by flights to Azerbaijan’s capital Baku three days later. The routes from New Delhi will operate three times per week and four times per week, respectively.
IndiGo announced in early June plans to launch operations to Central Asia, highlighting Tbilisi and Baku as proposed destinations, alongside Uzbekistan’s capital Tashkent and Almaty, Kazakhstan. Flights to Tashkent and Almaty are earmarked for a September start, but the airline has yet to confirm the schedule.
Data provided by OAG Schedules Analyser shows that IndiGo will become the sole provider of nonstop service between India and Georgia once flights begin. The countries were last connected by direct flights in May, when SpiceJet offered an Amritsar-Tbilisi route.
The market between New Delhi and Tbilisi was previously served by Ukraine International Airlines from January 2020 until the onset of the pandemic in March the same year, and again for a short time during July and August 2021. IndiGo hopes the 2,013-mi. (1,749-nm) route will appeal to leisure travelers, as well as attracting corporate traffic.
“Georgia is now among the favored and sought-after holiday destinations for Indian travelers,” IndiGo Head of Global Sales Vinay Malhotra says. “With the launch of these flights, we aim to not only strengthen the connectivity between India and Georgia, but also increase tourism and foster potential business collaborations.”
In the India-Azerbaijan market, Azerbaijan Airlines is the only provider of nonstop flights, operating between Baku’s Heydar Aliyev International Airport and New Delhi. Once IndiGo begins the same route, Azerbaijan Airlines will be offering a 3X-weekly service using Boeing 757-200s.
In addition to the Central Asia expansion, IndiGo intends to commence its first service to Africa on Aug. 5, linking Mumbai and Nairobi, Kenya. The LCC has also opened ticket sales for its inaugural route to Indonesia. Flights from Mumbai to Jakarta will start on Aug. 7, operating daily using Airbus A320neo aircraft.
In June, IndiGo firmed a “landmark” order for 500 Airbus A320 family aircraft, believed to be the largest-ever single purchase agreement. The deal takes the number of Airbus aircraft on order by the LCC to nearly 1,000. The airline currently operates a fleet of about 300 aircraft and has an existing order for 480 aircraft to be delivered before the end of the decade.
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