Virgin Atlantic announced the new partnership with the fast-growing low-cost carrier this weekend in Delhi, where it also marked 25 years of its own service from Heathrow to the city.
The deal with IndiGo includes Virgin’s fellow SkyTeam members Air France-KLM and Delta Air Lines, with the airlines saying they would “build an industry-leading partnership to offer travellers broader access, smoother journeys, and a more consistent experience, linking dozens of cities in the US, Canada, Europe and India” as travel to the country continues to flourish.
In 2024, India experienced a 1.4% growth in international arrivals, reaching 9,657,003, with the UK representing more than 10% of that, placing the country as the third largest source market.
“In real terms, this IndiGo partnership means more passenger capacity and potentially more destinations in the country,” said Virgin Atlantic’s chief commercial officer Juha Jarvinen. “We currently have access to 36 destinations here, and from 1 July we’ll be adding the IndiGo codeshare to our flights from Manchester to the US. Having a foothold here is immensely important to us, and Virgin Atlantic is the fifth largest airline to fly between Europe and India.”
“In real terms, this means more passenger capacity and potentially more destinations in the country”
“This is only the beginning; we firmly believe that India is the right place for Virgin Atlantic and our partners, especially with regards to how quickly India is growing,” he said.
The airline currently offers five daily flights from the UK, translating to around a million seats annually. “India today is our third largest passenger market, and second biggest in terms of cargo so it is clearly a massive opportunity for us,” Jarvinen added. “But at the same time, we need to make sure we localise ourselves; we will customise our offering on board and on the ground. With those five daily flights – two daily to Delhi, two daily to Mumbai and one daily to Bengaluru – that lays the foundation.”
The London-Delhi route is seen as eminently successful, having doubled operation to two daily flights in 2023, with load factors hovering around 90% in all cabins. The airline uses a mixture of aircraft on the route, the A350-1000 being the biggest, with capacity for nearly 400 passengers.
While Upper Class remains popular with business travellers, Jarvinen added the increasing development of the Indian economy – recently announced as seeing Q4 GDP growth of 7.4% – and the growing wealth of the population had meant a corresponding rise in premium leisure and VFR traffic.
Speaking to TTG at The Oberoi in New Delhi, Jarvinen also revealed that while the airline is happy with the three cities it currently serves and the frequency of direct flights it offers to India, Virgin is always exploring new options. “With the new partnership with IndiGo, we have opportunities to grow together,” he said.
Trade focus
Jarvinen said the growth of the SkyTeam partnership with IndiGo has positive implications for UK agents selling into India.
“We are very committed to omnichannel distributions. The travel trade is very important to us today, and will still be in the future, so whichever products we sell, they will always be available through the trade and we are also working with NDC [New Distribution Capability] solutions. These will definitely be through a carrot rather than stick approach – we will give a better offering through NDC, including ancillary services and dynamic pricing,” he added.
Since launching in 2005, IndiGo has become one of the fastest growing airlines in the world, with 400 aircraft transporting 118 million passengers last year alone, and further moves planned to grow international routes.
Jarvinen said that in terms of client perception, IndiGo’s original status as a low-cost carrier was unlikely to deter Virgin Atlantic customers perhaps more inclined towards a full-service airline.
“IndiGo today is at the very least a hybrid, meaning they have many of the principles of an LCC, but now they already have at least two class products on their domestic flights. They call their business cabin IndiGoStretch, which I believe is actually a better business product than many European airlines have, with a bigger seat,” he said.
“They will then obviously evolve that concept to their long-haul flights when they come, and we are of course eager to see their own A350s coming in 2027, so we’ll see what kind of product they offer then. But they are definitely moving much more into a mainstream service.”
