Summary
- IndiGo has expanded its international operations by launching a Mumbai-Jakarta flight, becoming the first airline to directly connect the two cities.
- The airline deploys its Airbus A320neo aircraft for this daily service, which takes a little over 6 hours to complete.
- This Jakarta route is part of IndiGo’s larger international expansion plan, with upcoming flights to Baku and a recently launched service to Kenya.
IndiGo has started flying to Jakarta in Indonesia from Mumbai as part of its recent international expansion in Asia, among other regions. The airline has been massively scaling its overseas operations and recently also launched its first service to Africa with a flight to Nairobi, Kenya from Mumbai.
Mumbai-Jakarta flight
On August 7th, IndiGo operated its first flight to Jakarta from India’s commercial capital Mumbai. Jakarta is IndiGo’s 28th international and 106th overall destination. With this, IndiGo has also become the first airline to directly connect Mumbai with the Indonesian capital. Vinay Malhotra, head of global sales at IndiGo, commented,
“This new route not only strengthens bilateral ties and enhances direct connectivity, but also enables access and promotes trade and tourism across Indonesia and India. For further expansion, this route connects Jakarta to IndiGo’s wide network across India, Central Asia and the Middle East.”
The airline deploys its trusted workhorse, the Airbus A320neo aircraft, on the route that takes a little over 6 hours to complete. This is IndiGo’s daily service, which takes place as per the following schedule:
Flight no. | Origin | Destination | Frequency | Effective | Departure | Arrival |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
6E 1601 | Mumbai | Jakarta | Daily | August 7th | 07:55 | 16:10 |
6E 1602 | Jakarta | Mumbai | Daily | August 7th | 17:05 | 21:30 |
Earlier, Indonesia’s Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno, had also welcomed IndiGo’s decision to start a non-stop service from Mumbai and highlighted that Indian tourists are in the top 5 foreign tourists visiting Indonesia. He’s hoping that the flight will also contribute significantly to achieving the country’s target of 8.5 million foreign tourist visits.
Photo: Media_works / Shutterstock
Big international plans
The service to Jakarta is part of IndiGo’s larger international expansion plan. Recently, the airline also operated its first flight to Africa when it flew between Mumbai and Nairobi in Kenya. Soon the carrier will also start flying to Baku in Azerbaijan, which will be its 30th international destination and 108th overall destination in the network.
IndiGo already commands a little over 35% of the international market served by Indian airlines. Its head of global sales, Vinay Malhotra, told the Deccan Herald that the carrier’s flights to Singapore, Thailand, Maldives, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka are all doing pretty well.
Photo: BoeingMan777/Shutterstock
Through its codeshare partnership with Turkish Airlines, IndiGo also gives convenient connections to several European and US destinations, including eight daily flights to the UK. He highlighted that the airline is keen on exploring geographical locations within 6–7 hours of range, quite suited to the kind of aircraft it flies.
In the coming years, as IndiGo acquires the long-range Airbus A321XLRs, it could even fly directly to destinations in the Far East as well as Europe. The airline has almost 1,000 aircraft on order from Airbus, with deliveries spread over the next decade.
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With inputs from Deccan Herald
