IndiGo has filed adjustments to its long-haul operation this summer that is facilitated by its Boeing 787 lease agreement with Norse Atlantic Airways. The carrier will be increasing flights on its Delhi to London Heathrow route to daily up from the current four weekly, according to filings to aviation analytics firm Cirium this week. This complements its existing flights between Heathrow and Mumbai which also operate daily.

It is worth noting that its Delhi-London flights will seemingly not operate daily for the entire summer season, but rather until the end of June. In July, this drops to around five weekly, and in August and September this reduces to as little as thrice weekly.

Its overall long-haul capacity will remain the same as this winter, with no additional aircraft being deployed, but certain routes will see cuts. Its three-weekly Copenhagen flights were suspended earlier this month and will not be returning to the network this summer either. It removed one weekly flight from its Delhi to Manchester route earlier this month as well.

IndiGo will now fly double daily to London Heathrow

Increasing flights on its Delhi-London route now means that the airline will fly up to twice daily to the notoriously slot-constrained Heathrow Airport. The carrier already operates daily from its Mumbai hub. The London-Mumbai and London-Delhi segments are the busiest routes between the United Kingdom and India. Several airlines – all well-established on the market – serve the routes. This includes British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Air India.

IndiGo wants to break into these routes and undercut its competitors with cheaper prices and a strong reputation, primarily in India. Its control over the domestic market (whee its passenger share has exceeded that of flag carrier Air India) also helps with feeder traffic for its new long-haul flights.

Air India is banking on the long-haul market to fuel current and future revenue growth. However, as IndiGo continues to encroach on its important trunk routes – including to London Heathrow – its grip on the market may weaken.

Consolidating the network

IndiGo began its long-haul operations at the start of this winter season, using several Boeing 787-9 aircraft leased from Norse Atlantic Airways. The Norwegian company delivered the sixth and final example to IndiGo at the end of January, meaning that half of its fleet now operates with the Indian low-cost giant.

Its European network changes are shown below.

IndiGo has used its Norse Atlantic planes to begin flights to Europe ahead of the delivery of its first Airbus A350 aircraft that will be delivered from 2027. It initially ordered 30, but doubled the amount last year.

It announced that it would be adjusting its Copenhagen and Manchester flights at the start of this month, it blamed “operational constraints” and more specifically “continuously changing airspace constraints due to geopolitical circumstances and congestion at airports both in India and abroad.”

It added that the changes were to help reduce “inconvenience to customers due to misconnections and cascading delays.”

Featured image: Copenhagen Airport

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