After dominating Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Bengaluru, Air India is now giving IndiGo a dogfight on India’s top 10 routes

Last November, when Vistara merged with Air India, there was a change in market leadership on certain domestic routes. Vistara, which had aggressively expanded after the fall of Jet Airways, was neck-and-neck with its erstwhile rival Air India on a few routes, after IndiGo had gained market leadership from Jet.

The tables turned post-merger, with Air India seizing the leadership position on the country's top two routes - Delhi-Mumbai-Delhi and Delhi-Bengaluru-Delhi. A year down the line, Air India has made further inroads, challenging IndiGo across the top 10 routes in the country. This explains why IndiGo has not vacated any of the metro routes in its recent flight cuts, even as it expands with a business-class cabin branded ‘Stretch’ to target business traffic more aggressively.

This month, the Delhi-Mumbai-Delhi sector will see 60 daily flights each way, a significant milestone for one of the busiest air corridors in the world and the busiest in India. This is in addition to the flights between Mumbai and Hindon, and Delhi and Navi Mumbai.

How Air India has muscled out IndiGo on India’s busiest route

Adjusted for weekly frequency variations, Air India will operate 205 weekly flights each way between Delhi and Mumbai, shows data shared by Cirium, an aviation analytics company. IndiGo, by contrast, operates 140 weekly flights or 20 daily flights compared to 30 flights on some days by Air India. Subsidiary Air India Express adds another 15 flights a week between Mumbai and Delhi, giving the Air India group a competitive edge over IndiGo.

On the second-busiest route, Delhi-Bengaluru, Air India operates 138 weekly flights, compared to 105 by IndiGo. Air India Express operates 21 weekly flights, taking the group's total to 159 flights.

IndiGo still leads on routes to Bengaluru from Mumbai, with 98 weekly flights, against Air India's 84, while Air India Express does not operate this route. On the Delhi-Hyderabad-Delhi route, IndiGo and Air India were neck to neck a year ago, but Air India has now taken the lead - its third win among the top four routes.

IndiGo remains ahead on Delhi- Kolkata-Delhi (77 times a week versus Air India's 70) and Delhi-Chennai-Delhi (70 versus 63) routes. On both these routes, subsidiary Air India Express is absent.

On Delhi-Pune, IndiGo has an edge - it operates 61 weekly flights compared to Air India's 54. But Air India Express operates 20 flights a week, giving the group a combined 74 weekly flights and an edge over IndiGo.

The Delhi-Ahmedabad-Delhi route is virtually tied, with 63 weekly flights by IndiGo and 64 by Air India. These are the only two non-metro routes in India's top 10.

IndiGo retains clear advantages on Bengaluru-Hyderabad-Bengaluru, with 92 weekly flights against 45 by Air India Express (Air India no longer operates this route), and on the Mumbai-Chennai-Mumbai sector, with 70 weekly flights against Air India's 49.

Air India has expanded offerings

Air India has consistently added frequencies between the metros post-merger. Among the top 10 routes, it expanded on Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Bengaluru, Mumbai-Bengaluru, and Delhi-Hyderabad. However, it completely vacated Bengaluru-Hyderabad, where it previously offered 21 weekly flights. Some frequencies were transferred to Air India Express, but the combined offering is lower than last December.

The airline also reduced frequency on the Delhi-Pune sector by five flights a week, while it has reduced three flights a week to Ahmedabad from Delhi. Both Air India and IndiGo have maintained the same flights to Kolkata from Delhi. Except for the Mumbai-Chennai route, IndiGo has not increased capacity on any sector; in fact, it has reduced frequencies on Delhi-Chennai and Mumbai-Bengaluru this December compared with December 2024.

Air India has selectively added capacity on top routes, even as it shrunk overall for flights under the “AI” code. The increases on high-traffic corridors reflect its strategy to chase volumes where fares are attractive and to leverage its three-class product offered on most flights across these routes.

Tail Note

With a multi-airport system already in place in Delhi - with Delhi and Hindon, along with NIA, Jewar expected to start operations soon - and Mumbai seeing its second airport take flight from 25 December, city-wise grouping will give the market more options.

Air India, for example, is not operating flights from Navi Mumbai. IndiGo, on the other hand, offers its business-class offering ‘Stretch’ on all flights between Delhi and Mumbai, but does not offer it on flights between Delhi and Navi Mumbai or from Mumbai to Hindon. With more capacity coming up, will IndiGo chase Air India on frequencies or be happy expanding across multiple regions? For now, IndiGo must deal with its FDTL-linked issues.

(The author, Ameya Joshi, is an aviation analyst.)