Bengaluru the default southern gateway, IndiGo the partner of choice as Qantas expands India operations

Representative image

In a surprise announcement, Qantas said it will operate non-stop flights to Bengaluru effective September 14, 2022. The four weekly flights will operate on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The Australian carrier will deploy the Airbus A330-200 on the route. This is the first time Qantas is venturing to Bengaluru and has chosen the city ahead of Mumbai as its second destination in India.

The announcement came with another one, of codeshare between Qantas and IndiGo, and codeshare between Jetstar and IndiGo. There are two key takeaways from this, that of Bengaluru coming of age and IndiGo being the partner of choice to fill the void left by Jet Airways.

Bengaluru coming of age

Bengaluru airport has been successful in attracting new airlines and starting new destinations in recent years. IndiGo, for example, connects Bengaluru to more domestic destinations than it does from Delhi -- its largest hub. But on international routes, Bengaluru still lagged behind. The much-talked-about flights between Seattle and Bengaluru by American Airlines and non-stop to San Francisco by United have not started, primarily because of a drop in traffic due to the pandemic and also because of the issues of delivery of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

Traditionally, airlines have preferred Delhi, followed by Mumbai, and then diversified to either Chennai or Bengaluru. In this case, Qantas seems to have looked at Bengaluru for the market size and catchment area it provides. Coupled with a codeshare with IndiGo, Bengaluru provides a larger pan-India connectivity than Mumbai.

Two functional runways, cargo infrastructure and construction of second terminal along with a city thathas expanded rapidly has meant that it has edged out Chennai effectively as the gateway to South India.

Codeshare

The airline has also announced a codeshare with IndiGo, India’s largest carrier by fleet and domestic market share. Since its first codeshare with Turkish Airlines in late 2018, IndiGo has steadily added partnerships. IndiGo announced a codeshare (an arrangement in which one airline markets and sells tickets and the other operates flights) with Air France-- KLM a few weeks ago, though that partnership hasn’t become operational yet.

Once live, the partnership will see Qantas customers fly to over 50 destinations in India via Bengaluru, Delhi and Singapore. The QF coded flights will be to 41 destinations from Bengaluru, 33 from Delhi and six from Singapore.

Jetstar

Jetstar Group and IndiGo announced a new low-cost carrier (LCC) interline partnership. This will enable customers book connections through the Jetstar connect platform.

The airlines have opted for a newer Application Programming Interface (API)-driven integration powered by Dohop. This helps airlines without access to the standard  International Air Transport Association (IATA) interline that requires joining BSP (BIlling and Settlement Plan) for settlement. Jetstar Group operates three airlines, Jetstar Airways in Australia and New Zealand, Jetstar Asia in Singapore and Jetstar Japan.

Jetstar flies from Singapore to the entire Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) region and will help customers connect to Bengaluru, Mumbai and New Delhi via Singapore with a seamless transfer of baggage. This will provide options for passengers to fly to tourist destinations like Bali and business destinations like Jakarta that do not have non-stop flights from India.

Filling the void left by Jet Airways

IndiGo has signed a codeshare arrangement with Turkish Airlines (Star Alliance), Qatar Airways (Oneworld), American Airlines (Oneworld) and now with Air France - KLM (Skyteam). The airline’s unique position in the market in terms of leadership, the readiness with the information technology (IT) infrastructure needed for codeshare, and the expansive network within the country with multiple frequencies help offer better connectivity and ability to handle irregular operations in case of delays or cancellations, making it a partner of choice.

The other options in the country are Air India, which is now a Tata group company and would have faced decision-making uncertainty when the discussions would have taken place.

Vistara,  a joint venture between Tata group and Singapore Airlines, already has a codeshare agreement with the latter. Singapore Airlines and Qantas have been traditional rivals although Qantas has had a major presence in Singapore for time immemorial. This ruled out the option of a codeshare arrangement with full service carriers. SpiceJet is yet to operationalise its codeshare with Emirates and has seen its network shrink in the recent past, while AirAsia India and Go FIRST have been away from the scene totally.

Typically, airlines look for scale, reliability, brand and technical stability before getting into a codeshare and IndiGo ticks all the boxes, making it the partner of choice. The only place where it would falter is the premium experience, which will be covered up with freebies like complimentary meals.

Jet Airways had a very strong relationship with the Qantas group, including Jetstar. The void left by Jet Airways is being filled by IndiGo, in this case. India - Australia is a large market but has traditionally been dominated by one-stop flights operated by Thai Airways, Malaysian Airlines and Singapore Airlines. The hubs in Bangkok, Kulala Lumpur and Singapore made the one-stops attractive over the non-stops from India.

With the restrictions caused ny the pandemic, the Zero COVID policies of some of these governments and economic turmoil for airlines in the region meant that there was sudden spurt in demand for non-stops and even Qantas returned to India as Air India reinstated its non-stop services to Sydney and Melbourne.

It is a strange time to launch operations on a new route, with the price of oil at near-all time highs. Even so, with a strong partnership in place and passengers likely to prefer non-stops in the foreseeable future, Qantas’s prospects in India may be bright.