India’s low-cost airline IndiGo has said it will increase flights to Singapore as the current overall limit, permitted by the air services agreement between the two countries, remains underutilised.
As of now, the Indian side does not even utilise 50 per cent of the flights allowed under the agreement, which leaves scope for increasing flights, the IndiGo President, Mr Aditya Ghosh, told PTI.
“But, we hope, this will now change and as we increase flights,” said Mr Ghosh, who launched IndiGo’s first low fare service on September 15 to Singapore.
IndiGo, though a low-cost airline, flies under the scheduled air flight agreement between India and Singapore, he pointed out.
Mr Ghosh sees a further increase in passenger traffic between the two countries, and has planned a number of holiday packages both ways as IndiGo increases flights to Singapore from “one per day to at least two and preferably three per day” in the next 300 days.
Mr Ghosh said he also expects an increase in new travellers from India, especially taking advantage of the low fare to travel to Singapore for shopping and holidays.
“We are trying to tie up with various agencies in Singapore to sell Singapore as a family holiday destination to Indian tourists,” he said.
“Having established Delhi-Singapore and Mumbai-Singapore routes, we are looking to connect Hyderabad and Chennai to Singapore within six to eight months, than we are going to look at adding Kolkata,” Mr Ghosh said.
Eventually, IndiGo will look at linking Singapore to the 26 cities the airline connects in India, he said, adding that all those cities are major tourist attractions, including Goa.
Mr Ghosh said IndiGo will also fly to Jeddah and Dhaka, expanding from its existing international routes, which will include Muscat and Kathmandu from next month.
IndiGo recently launched flights to Dubai and Bangkok.