IndiGo to rejig routes to Singapore

IndiGo is withdrawing its Mumbai-Singapore and Delhi-Singapore flights as  part of its route-rationalisation exercise. High fuel costs and intense competition are said to be the reason behind the move. The airline will redeploy its planes to start new services from Hyderabad and Chennai to Singapore.

IndiGo is yet to inform travel agents. The airline is not accepting web bookings on Singapore flights from Mumbai and Delhi beyond March. Also, no flights are available on the Mumbai-Bangkok route from March.

The airline made its global foray in September 2011, connecting Delhi with Dubai. Gradually, it added flights to Dubai, Bangkok, Muscat (Oman) and Singapore from Mumbai and Dubai.

With its low fares and stress on arriving and departing on time, the airline was successful in luring business from established carriers. However, intense competition and a limited distribution network in Singapore has impacted the airline, industry sources said. It does not use the global distribution system that full-service carriers use to sell and distribute tickets.

Air India, Jet Airways and Singapore Airlines have daily flights from Mumbai and Delhi to Singapore. From Mumbai, Singapore Airlines operates three daily flights and from Delhi it has two. IndiGo is the only low-cost carrier serving the two routes.

The airline said, "IndiGo is not shutting the Bangkok or Singapore operations. We will soon start the Chennai-Singapore route, and then the Hyderabad-Singapore one. IndiGo has increased its frequency on the Delhi-Bangkok route to double daily and started the Kolkata-Bangkok route.''

At the launch of Delhi-Singapore flight in September 2011  IndiGo president Aditya Ghosh had said  airline  plans to add services to Singapore from Chennai and Kolkata within the next few months. Services from other Indian cities including Bangalore and Hyderabad are also under consideration but the initial priority will be Chennai and Kolkata.  Ghosh has also indicated of increasing  capacity on the Delhi-Singapore and Mumbai-Singapore sectors, according to a Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation report.