Five months after restoration of overseas flights, why are Indian carriers missing on so many routes?

(Representational image: Philip Myrtorp via Unsplash)

August is the fifth full month of overseas flights after the lifting of restrictions on international operations. International traffic has returned to near pre-COVID levels faster than domestic traffic. This return was characterised by two opposing things, first the chaos in Europe due to staff shortages and second the new flights and destinations being offered from India in light of countries looking to diversify their original source markets.

Data shared by global travel data provider OAG Aviation exclusively for this article shows that August will have 302 city pairs which will see international flight operations to/from India. A staggering 45%, or 137 of these, won’t have an Indian carrier present on it. As IndiGo talks of international expansion and Air India looks to induct additional wide-body aircraft, it shows a mix of opportunity that lies ahead and what has been missed thus far.

Top routes where Indian carriers are not present

Interestingly, the top route where Indian carriers are absent is to Kuala Lumpur. IndiGo was the only Indian carrier to operate to Kuala Lumpur from the Indian side and the airline is yet to return to it with full force. Kuala Lumpur is home to AirAsia, which has restored flights to India significantly. There is no Indian carrier to Kuala Lumpur from Trichy, Delhi, Bengaluru, Kochi, Mumbai and Hyderabad. These are the airports from where AirAsia Bhd, AirAsia X or Batik Malaysia are offering flights.

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High on the list is Colombo, which has seen a lot of airlines take the plunge as tourism was seeing a new high pre-COVID. But the current times are different. Amid economic and political instability, while SriLankan Airlines operates to India and is also taking additional technical stops at Chennai and Trivandrum for its long- haul flights due to shortage of fuel in Colombo, Indian carriers have restricted themselves to operating minimal flights from just Chennai. That has left a void to Colombo from Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kochi where SriLankan Airlines operates but none of the Indian ones do.

Indian carriers are absent on routes to Abu Dhabi from Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad and to Dubai from Kolkata. While IndiGo launched flights to Bahrain from Mumbai recently, there is no Indian carrier flying to Bahrain from Chennai or Hyderabad.

The situation is similar on flights to the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa from Delhi and Mumbai and to Singapore from Hyderabad and Kochi. These are all sectors which have at least a daily flight operated by a foreign carrier. There are many other sectors which have less than daily flights and are without competition from Indian counterparts. When flights are daily, it signifies that there is a sizable amount of traffic airlines are carrying.

Not just routes, countries too! 

There are 19 countries where foreign carriers operate to India but none of the Indian carriers operate! In terms of connectivity, the largest is Iraq, where Iraqi carriers operate to Mumbai and Ahmedabad from Baghdad and Najaf while Delhi is connected with Baghdad. Same is the story with neighbouring Iran. This is followed by Ethiopia where Ethiopian Airlines operates to Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru. Indian carriers are absent from the Netherlands as well as to other European destinations like Finland, Poland and Switzerland.

Former USSR countries including Russia have flights to Delhi. There also is direct connectivity from Almaty, Bishkek, Tashkent, Dushanbe and Baku but beyond some charters during the pandemic, airlines from India have not dared to venture there yet.

In the African continent, flights to Dar es Salaam and Cairo are operated by local carriers. The Indian Ocean Region likewise sees connectivity to Mauritius, Seychelles and Reunion Island, all by their local carriers.

Flights to Bhutan have been off the radar for Indian carriers and rightly so for the special operational needs. Air India - the only Indian carrier to Kabul -- has also not returned there while the Afghani carrier has started operations to Delhi.

Indian carriers have an upper hand too

There are 72 routes where there are only Indian carriers operating! Of these routes, there are 57 which are monopoly, which means neither is the foreign carrier operating and only one Indian carrier is operating on this route. Of these, 24 are operated by Air India Express, followed by 14 by Air India, 10 by IndiGo, five by SpiceJet and four by Go FIRST.

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In terms of destinations, a staggering 23 pairs are those between India and the United Arab Emirates, followed by 12 between India and Saudi Arabia. Currently there remains only one country in the Middle East -- Israel -- where Indian carriers operate but the local carrier El Al is yet to return to India post-pandemic.

Tail Note 

International is not a magic wand. At one point of time, Jet Airways had half its revenue coming in from international operations, yet it had to meet the fate that it did. As Air India looks to strengthen its wide-body offering and order more aircraft and IndiGo explores newer shores with the A321XLR coming in from 2024 or 2025, the opportunity to expand is as vast as one can imagine!