Indian carrier IndiGo will do its first U.S. codesharing

Travel Weekly

2 days ago

NEW DELHI, India -- - Fast-growing IndiGo, India's largest airline, will begin its first U.S. codeshares.
IndiGo will partner with Delta and KLM on U.S. and Canada codeshares from Amsterdam and with Virgin Atlantic for U.S. codeshares from Manchester, England.
For now, the partnerships are limited, but they potentially could be an early step toward deeper integration between IndiGo and the transatlantic joint venture alliance of Delta, Virgin Atlantic and Air France-KLM. CEOs from all three companies joined IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers at a press conference Sunday at IATA's Annual General Meeting to announce the partnership.
"We believe that the opportunity of this is just immense," Elbers said.
IndiGo already codeshares with Air France, KLM and Virgin Atlantic on 30-plus domestic routes in India. And along with transatlantic codeshares, IndiGo announced Sunday that it will begin codesharing with KLM on flights from Amsterdam to 30 destinations in Europe.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian said that Delta isn't currently working on a deeper integration with IndiGo, but he didn't rule out a joint venture down the road.
"You could envision a world when that takes place," he said.
Bastian added that Delta plans to return to India in the next couple years. The airline last flew to India briefly in early 2020, only to see its new route between New York JFK and Mumbai upended by the Covid-19 pandemic.
IndiGo, said Elbers, plans to launch India-U.S. service eventually, but the timeline won't be determined until after the airline begins taking delivery of its own widebody aircraft in 2027.
IndiGo's first U.S. codeshares will come after its launch on July 1 of service to Manchester from Mumbai and its July 2 launch of Mumbai-Amsterdam. The routes will be the airline's first long-haul operations. The carrier also expects to add eight more long-haul cities in the coming year, including London, Copenhagen and Athens.
Inception dates for the codeshare will be dependent upon regulatory approvals.
For now, Indigo's long-haul routes are to be operated with leased Boeing 787 aircraft. But in 2027, the airline expects to take delivery of the first of 30 Airbus A350s that it ordered last year. On Sunday, Elbers announced that the carrier would convert 30 of the 70 Airbus 350 options that it secured last year into firm orders.
The orders are a major step in IndiGo's transformation into a global carrier after launching 18 years ago as discount domestic operator. At present, the airline flies to 41 international destinations to go along with its extensive domestic network of 91 cities. IndiGo plans to add 10 more international destinations in the coming year.
This month, Delta will fly to eight U.S. destinations from Amsterdam, while joint venture partner KLM will fly to 14 U.S. destinations and five in Canada, Cirium flight schedule data shows.
Virgin Atlantic is serving four U.S. cities in June from Amsterdam.
The airlines did not specifically note whether all or just some of those Amsterdam and Manchester routes will become IndiGo codeshares.
IndiGo flies more than 400 aircraft and has what Elbers described as the world's largest order book, which includes a record 500-plane Airbus narrowbody order placed in 2023.
"I don't think there's a more exciting airline in the world in terms of what they're doing," Bastian said on Sunday.
Virgin Atlantic CEO Shai Weiss said that 7 million passengers flew between the U.S. and India last year. The potential for the market, he said, is "tremendously immense."