Maha Kumbh: IndiGo increases flights, seats on Prayagraj route amid unprecedented demand

The airline has also increased capacity deployed on existing routes to/from Prayagraj through addition of frequency and operations of A321, its larger aircraft.

IndiGo, India's biggest carrier by market share and fleet size, has increased its flights and seat capacity to and from Prayagraj to meet the demand arising from the Maha Kumbh, which the Uttar Pradesh city is playing host to.

The airline had planned a significant increase in capacity but had to add more flights to meet the "unprecedented demand" on the Prayagraj route, the airline said in a statement on January 30.

The airline will now operate around 900 flights to/from the city, up from 490 regular services planned earlier for  the duration of the world’s biggest religious gathering.

It will operate more than 1.6 lakh seats to/from Prayagraj during the Maha Kumb, which commenced on January 13 and will continue until February 26, more than double its capacity to the airport.

The airline has also increased connectivity to Prayagraj to 10 locations to include Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Jaipur, it said. It was already operation flights from and to Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Raipur and Bhubaneswar from Prayagraj.

The airline has also increased capacity on existing routes through addition of frequency and operations of A321, its larger aircraft.

On January 29, the civil aviation ministry directed airlines to check spiralling ticket prices. Following the directive, IndiGo reduced fares by 30-50 percent, Moneycontrol reported.

Prayagraj’s connectivity has expanded dramatically, with direct flights to 17 cities (up from just 8 in December 2024) and connecting flights to 26 cities, including Srinagar and Visakhapatnam. Airlines such as SpiceJet and Akasa Air have all stepped up to meet the Kumbh rush, offering thousands of additional seats.