Why IndiGo’s Delhi-Gwalior ATR flight could spell trouble for Air India and Spicejet

IndiGo, in a surprise move, had announced it was shying away from its single-fleet strategy and inducted the ATR 72-600 aircraft in November 2017.

Two significant things have happened with IndiGo in the last two days. First, the airline launched flights to Gwalior — in a non-IndiGoisque manner, with the announcement being made by the Minister of Civil Aviation and not by the airline. Gwalior was not even listed as a destination on the airline’s website when the announcement was made.

Second, again linked to Gwalior, the flight between New Delhi and the city will be operated by ATR72-600 aircraft, 29 of which are part of the airline’s fleet right now. While Gwalior joins the network as one of 70 other stations for IndiGo, operating ATRs from New Delhi has just one other parallel.

IndiGo ATRs and why congested airports hate Turboprops

IndiGo, in a surprise move, had announced it was shying away from its single-fleet strategy and inducted the ATR 72-600 aircraft in November 2017. While the airline has placed an order for 50 such aircraft, it has so far inducted only 29, at a much slower pace than its larger, A320 family.

ATRs come with their own challenges on the slots front. Since the twin-turboprop aircraft takes longer than a jet to vacate the runway and is slower on approach, it takes up precious slots at airports. This means that a single ATR movement could hamper the overall capacity at the airport due to its higher runway occupancy time as well as slower approach and landing speed.

Both Mumbai and Delhi had stopped allotting slots to turboprops. Jet Airways based its single ATR in Mumbai in return for additional slots for the B737. That had led to the closure of Diu and Porbandar stations for the airline. By then, Spicejet had set up a formidable base in Delhi with its Q400 turboprop aircraft, which were utilised to connect the airport to some lucrative routes such as Dharamshala and Dehradun, as well as some RCS-UDAN routes, including Kishangarh. Spicejet has been utilising the range of the aircraft to its advantage, often deploying them on longer distances, to sectors such as Kandla or Bhopal.

Air India Regional, on the other hand, has a formidable base at Delhi, which acted as a feeder network for Air India and helped connect mostly monopoly routes such as Shimla, Kullu, Ludhiana or Bikaner.

Both Mumbai and Delhi had to provide some slots to turboprops as part of RCS-UDAN requirements.

IndiGo being out of the race so far meant that its regional ambitions were restricted only to the South to begin with and then to Central and Eastern India. With Mumbai also following the same policy to improve flight movements, the airline could not base its ATRs or even operate a few flights out of either Mumbai or Delhi.

Times have changed

As flights to Gwalior opened up for sale, there was a surprise. The flights would be operated by an ATR 72-600, which would be based in Delhi.

This gives the airline an entry into the lucrative North India regional market. The last decade or so has seen a lot of changes in passenger mindset. Earlier, while there were some flights between short sectors such as Delhi-Chandigarh or Delhi-Jaipur, such sectors have become attractive now as more and more passengers take to the air. This is despite the fact that road connectivity has gone up in recent years and travel times have gone down.

What is certain is that IndiGo won’t base just one aircraft in Delhi. The next few will be on their way for what will comprise a major Northern base, to operate flights that feed IndiGo’s large domestic (and upcoming International) network.

Competition

Air India Regional and Spicejet have been enjoying a great run from New Delhi on their turboprops. Flights to Dharamshala, Kullu, Kishangarh and Bikaner, among other locations, have seen high fares or been sold out. These are a handful of routes where market rates regularly ruled on RCS routes.

With IndiGo’s entry, Air India Regional’s non-RCS routes could be high on the radar for the airline. Upcoming airports in Uttar Pradesh could also see it operate ATR aircraft and help feed its large Delhi operations.

Spicejet will probably face a threat on fewer routes since it is utilising its Q400s to operate on longer sectors such as Kandla — too long for an ATR. While Spicejet currently enjoys a monopoly on multiple routes under RCS-UDAN, the three-year exclusivity period will start ending for many routes, giving IndiGo a much-needed window to start commercial operations.

Delhi is the biggest market in the country and any addition of slots, flights and destinations from the National Capital will always add to the network feed for an airline as large as IndiGo.