IndiGo plans to expand Middle East operations

IndiGo, the Indian budget carrier which made its debut flight to Dubai on September 1, will launch flights to Abu Dhabi and Sharjah sometime next year, according to the carrier's top executive."We will definitely be launching flights to Abu Dhabi and Sharjah in the future, but not in the next six to seven months. It would be sometime next year but I cannot say when at this point of time. The priority would be to add more frequencies on the Dubai route," Aditya Ghosh, IndiGo president, told Gulf News. Having launched its maiden flight to Dubai from Delhi with a 90 per cent load factor, Ghosh said the airline's forward bookings for the sector look "reasonably good". IndiGo is now gearing up to launch daily flights between Mumbai and Dubai starting October 2, followed by the Muscat launch on October 10. That is also when IndiGo will start operations on the Mumbai-Singapore route with daily flights."In the next six months, we would like to raise frequencies on these routes to two flights a day. That's our priority at the moment," said Ghosh. He also said that while the carrier will start Muscat operations with four flights a week initially, the airline plans to take it up to a daily frequency later on. According to a recent report in the Indian media, while IndiGo was originally granted rights to operate daily flights to Muscat, the Indian government withdrew some of the rights and gave them to state-owned Air India.When asked to comment on the issue, Ghosh did not elaborate, but said: "We expect to take our Muscat frequency up to seven flights a week soon — most probably in the winter period."Quizzed on IndiGo's plans for the launch of operations to Ras Al Khaimah, Ghosh said the carrier has no immediate plans. "It is too early days to spread ourselves," he said. The carrier also plans to fly from the Indian cities of Kochi, Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram to Dubai in the near future. Meanwhile, Jeddah is not too far off IndiGo's radar, with Ghosh saying the carrier was "hoping to start operations to Jeddah in winter". He told Gulf News in a recent interview that the carrier is looking at no less than "five or six destinations in the Middle East", including Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. "We are currently focusing on how the next 12 months, and then these destinations will follow over the next three to four years. "That's also when we would be close to a 100-aircraft airline," he said. From / Gulf News