Dubai: Budget carrier IndiGo announced Friday that it has launched nonstop flights between the Indian city of Bengaluru and the UAE’s capital, Abu Dhabi. The flight will operate six times a week and commence operations on August 1, amid the peak summer travel rush.
With the addition of this flight, IndiGo will now operate 75 weekly flights from Abu Dhabi to 10 cities in India, further strengthening connectivity to the capital of the United Arab Emirates.
Vinay Malhotra, Head of Global Sales, IndiGo, said, “We are pleased to announce direct flights between Bengaluru and Abu-Dhabi. Bengaluru is the tenth city on the IndiGo network to offer direct flights between Abu Dhabi and India.”
He added, “With the addition of these flights, IndiGo offers 75 weekly frequencies to Abu Dhabi and over 220 to the UAE.” Malhotra also said that this new flight will further strengthen travel, trade, and tourism between India and the UAE by offering smooth and convenient business and leisure options.
IndiGo Airlines recently ditched its single-class cabin strategy by introducing a Business Class service on some of its aircraft that will fly over some of its ‘busiest and business routes’, domestic and international.
However, for India’s fastest-growing budget airline, the next growth phase is to expand beyond a low-cost carrier (LCC) model, including keeping options for other cabin classes such as Premium Economy. And as far as CEO Pieter Elbers is concerned, IndiGo “left that station already” when referring to the airline's low-cost categorisation.
Elbers told Gulf News in an earlier interview, “We keep all options open going forward. I think (the Business Class offering) is a step. We are going to introduce it now for domestic-only, and we will keep options open going forward.”
Elbers also said that the airline would price these products “competitively”. “Of course, it will be different, like pricing between the different classes. We will stay loyal to basic customer promises and create an aspirational yet affordable product for our customers,” he explained. Elbers said cabin configurations of the Business Class offering will be announced in August.
