Indian residents in the UAE will have cheaper options to fly to their home country as IndiGo will launch operations to three more cities next month.
The low-cost carrier will launch direct flights between Abu Dhabi and the Indian cities of Mangaluru, Coimbatore and Tiruchirappalli from August.
The flights on the Abu Dhabi to Mangaluru route will operate daily from August 9, and Tiruchirappalli to Abu Dhabi will operate four times a week, starting from August 11, 2024. The direct flights between Coimbatore and the UAE capital will operate thrice weekly from August 10.
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The airline has listed one-way airfare from Abu Dhabi to Mangaluru and Coimbatore as low as Dh353 and Dh330, respectively, for the upcoming months. Return airfare can be as low as Dh843 for UAE travellers.
The UAE-India air corridor is one of the busiest between the two countries, thanks to 3.7 million Indian nationals living and working in the UAE. They are the largest foreign workers among the expat community.
Due to strong air travel demand, airfares between the two countries spike substantially, more than doubling during peak seasons of summer holidays and New Year holidays. Travel industry executives have been calling on the governments to increase seat capacity to accommodate growing demand. A large number of Indians also travel to Dubai for tourism throughout the year.
According to aviation consultancy OAG, India-UAE is the 9th busiest corridor by seats in July 2024, reaching 2.192 million seats.
Abu Dhabi Airports’ first-quarter 2024 data showed Mumbai, Kochi and Delhi were the second, third and fourth busiest destinations with 240,681, 206,139 and 203,395 passengers, respectively.
“With the addition of these flights, IndiGo now operates 89 non-stop flights a week to Abu Dhabi from 13 cities in India,” said Vinay Malhotra, head of global sales at IndiGo.
He added that the airline will provide an “affordable” travel experience to its customers.
IndiGo earlier announced direct flights between Bengaluru and Abu Dhabi six times a week from August 1. In January, the budget airline declared the removal of fuel charges on all its domestic and international flights.