IndiGo Airlines six new Mumbai flights launched

IndiGo, the low-cost domestic airline based in India, has launched six new flights. The new IndiGo flights will operate on the following sectors: Mumbai-Goa, Mumbai-Hyderabad, Mumbai-Kolkata, Hyderabad-Mumbai, and Kolkata-Goa via Mumbai.

IndiGo said that, with the launch of the new services, the carrier was at present operating 131 daily flights, connecting 17 destinations.

The airline, promoted by the travel group InterGlobe Enterprises and industrialist Rakesh Gangwal, has a fleet of 20 Airbus A320 aircraft.

Aditya Ghosh, president of IndiGo, said, “We have been getting a lot of traction from every kind of domestic customer, and this will provide even more flexibility of choice for our customers.”

The carrier, Aditya Ghosh added, would “continue to expand its network to meet the requirements of both business travellers and leisure travellers.”

The Economic Times quoted Aditya Ghosh as saying in an interview, “IndiGo has had the highest load factor (average passengers per available seat kilometre) in the market in recent times.”

“In addition to this, other factors related to economic performance are prompting the carrier to expand. Also, there is still a big demand for low-cost travel,” he added.

Most corporate flyers, Ghosh told The Economic Times, have shifted from full-service carriers to low-cost carriers to save on cost and this has helped no-frill airlines to get a larger pie in the corporate travel.

IndiGo said that it accounted for 13.5% of the aviation market share in the first three months of 2009, ahead of the budget airline SpiceJet, which has had 12.1% of the aviation market share.

Reports say that SpiceJet is also planning to launch as many as six flights by the end of May 2009.

Even as IndiGo is expected to add five more planes to its existing fleet, SpiceJet is slated to take delivery of one aircraft by the end of the current fiscal year, reports said.