The IATA AGM has just kicked off in Delhi (so you can expect lots of interesting quotes from airline executives in the coming days). To kick off the event, a new partnership has been announced.
In this post:
IndiGo partners with SkyTeam transatlantic joint venture airlines
IndiGo, Delta, Air France-KLM, and Virgin Atlantic, have announced plans to build a partnership connecting India with Europe and North America, with ambitions to grow to a global scale. There a few important things to understand, for context:
- Delta, Air France-KLM, and Virgin Atlantic, already all partner closely, belong to the same transatlantic joint venture, and Delta even owns a stake in Air France-KLM and Virgin Atlantic
- IndiGo is India’s largest airline, and while the airline has historically been focused on domestic and regional flying, it’s now starting to get into long haul markets
- IndiGo already has partnerships with Air France-KLM and Virgin Atlantic, so what’s new here is the Delta partnership, plus the overall group aspect of this, of creating a cohesive strategy across airlines
Here’s how the premise of the partnership is described:
“India, one of the world’s fastest-growing aviation markets, is at the heart of this collaboration. By linking IndiGo’s extensive domestic network with Delta’s strength in North America and the transatlantic, the extensive reach of Air France-KLM in Europe and North America, and the U.K. and transatlantic presence of Virgin Atlantic, the partnership is poised to offer travelers broader access, smoother journeys, and a more consistent experience across continents. Linking dozens of cities in the United States, Canada, Europe and India, the airlines aim to meet rising demand for international travel while setting new standards for connectivity and cooperation in global aviation.”
With IndiGo soon launching flights to Europe using leased Norse Atlantic Boeing 787s (before eventually taking delivery of its own Airbus A350s), the airline sees more value in global collaborations. Once commercial contracts are signed and regulatory procedures are completed, IndiGo will be allowed to sell partner flights under its own 6E marketing codes.
This will allow IndiGo customers to book onward travel on select flights operated by international partners, making it easier to reach destinations across Europe and North America. These include:
- KLM flights from Amsterdam to 30 points within Europe
- Delta and KLM flights from Amsterdam to the United States and Canada
- Virgin Atlantic flights from Manchester to the United States
Delta also eventually plans to launch Atlanta to Delhi flights, but I’ll talk more about that in a separate post. What’s being announced for now is only the beginning.
This partnership is also supposed to create a framework for deeper collaboration between the carriers on a bilateral and multilateral basis, with more commercial collaboration, including network, loyalty, cargo, and sales. The airlines will also purpose areas of non-commercial cooperation, including aircraft maintenance, sustainability, training, and ground handling.
There’s a lot of merit to this global partnership
India is obviously a hugely important airline market, with a ton of growth. Historically, you’d think that United and Air India would’ve had the biggest advantage. Air India is India’s most global airline, while United is the US airline with the most service to India, and both airlines belong to Star Alliance.
Despite that, the two airlines really haven’t done much to cooperate. They certainly haven’t had a joint venture, and United has historically almost avoided putting its passengers on Air India. Now, in fairness, that’s probably because of the quality of Air India’s product. Back in the day, United would sometimes partner more closely with Vistara than Air India (before the two airlines were merged).
The issue is, Air India was India’s only global airline. Airlines could establish partnerships with IndiGo, but IndiGo didn’t fly long haul, and didn’t have a premium cabin. Both of those things are now changing, making a partnership much more valuable.
There’s something to be said for the cohesive approach that Delta, Air France-KLM, and Virgin Atlantic, are taking. The airlines collaborate on their transatlantic strategy, and India is very much a part of that, given how much US to India traffic routes through Europe.
It’s worth noting that American has been partnering with IndiGo since 2022, including a codeshare agreement. There’s likely nothing precluding IndiGo from partnering with multiple airlines. I suspect this new partnership will overtake the American partnership in terms of importance, given American’s lack of ability to execute any sort of strategy.
Only time will tell how this evolves, as IndiGo becomes increasingly global. I think it’ll be several years before this partnership matures, though I wouldn’t be surprised if this becomes the most significant global partnership in India (which… isn’t necessarily saying a whole lot).
If there’s one thing Delta is good at, it’s fostering very close partnerships, typically with some sort of equity stake. While that’s not in the cards for now, I wouldn’t be surprised to see that in the future.
Bottom line
IndiGo has announced plans to form a strategic partnership with Delta, Air France-KLM, and Virgin Atlantic. This is probably the most significant global partnership we’ve seen in India to date. I wouldn’t expect this to be a game changer for now, but it’s useful to have this framework in place before IndiGo starts its major global growth strategy, since I think this will impact where the airline flies.
What do you make of this new IndiGo partnership strategy?
This... seems to be take #2 of DL/AF/KL trying to partner up with an Indian airline in recent memory- anyone remember the partnership they had with Jet Airways back in the late 2010s? And Jet Airways did even have an AMS-YYZ flight that was one of my targets for Skymiles redemptions back in the day. Is Indigo looking to join an alliance or anything like that or is this going to be another agreement akin to what DL has with LATAM?
Ben’s never visited India since 2018, when he took the World’s Longest Flight (SQ22) via Ahmedabad, as he called it. It’s been quite a while, and I’m sure he might be impressed by AI’s A350s and ex-Vistara A321neos and 787s, plus the Terminal 2s at BLR and BOM — but 6E will leave a lot to be desired; it’s like G3 in Brazil or VA in Australia at best.
That said, he might want to...
Ben’s never visited India since 2018, when he took the World’s Longest Flight (SQ22) via Ahmedabad, as he called it. It’s been quite a while, and I’m sure he might be impressed by AI’s A350s and ex-Vistara A321neos and 787s, plus the Terminal 2s at BLR and BOM — but 6E will leave a lot to be desired; it’s like G3 in Brazil or VA in Australia at best.
That said, he might want to wait until Q3 2025, when the new Navi Mumbai and Noida airports are expected to open. Even so, 6E is well and truly becoming a global carrier which people may well turn to if trying to avoid AI.
"Ben hasn't visited...".
Most of 6E’s codeshare partners belong to OW: QF, QR, BA, MH, JL and AA. So to go all-in with SkyTeam transatlantic airlines is a pretty major move from 6E.
Something to mention that Indigo (and other LCCs) operates out of different terminals in DEL and BLR without any internal connectivity between the terminals. Which means you need to get out physically from the international terminal walk 10 minutes in BLR or take a shuttle/cab/bus for 30 minutes in DEL via regular traffic to transfer between terminals.
I won't use for sure ever use them if transiting in DEL.
btw, Ben, China Airlines and Southwest just announced they will be partners.
Given that China Airlines in in SkyTeam although on a peripheral level, it indicates they may be moving away from SkyTeam.
Also probably says that DL intends to stick it out in TPE and CI does not want to compete with them.
how about the current partnership with QR? I thought they were cosying up post covid and now indigo goes big with Skyteam. Also, it feel like skyteam just woke up recently and realized that expansion is good for them...Maybe I am just reading into it too much...
There is no way Indigo leave their already established, successful partnerships.
This is like how Jetblue partners with airlines from both Star Alliance and Oneworld airlines. If it works, it works.
IndiGO is a terrible airline. I will never fly them again. They have indifferent flight attendants as far as attitudes. Their seats are broken, and the planes are still in use. I got food poisoning from their food and they didn't care.
Anyone who thinks it is ok to eat airplane food in India deserves food poisoning in my opinion.
Reliable schedule, usually multiple options a day… in India that is more than I can hope for so will take it any day
I wonder if the ME3s would be as successful as they are now if they did not have India to use as a catchment area. EK and QR between them, have ~10 daily flight from Delhi alone on B777s. I look forward to seeing if Indigo will make any inroads into this traffic and capture market share from the ME3s. I believe they could if they provide good service at a competitive prices.
I wish them luck.
there is no doubt that Indian carriers are going to eat into the ME3's traffic and esp. EK.
Add in flights by AI and DL to the interior US (not just NYC) and growth of flights to Europe on AF/KL/VS and Indigo and we will see alot more capacity coming online.
also, India has frozen the amount of capacity which Emirates can fly - so they are in a no-growth mode.
I hope EK and QR both lose market share. Although I have flown both of them a few times and enjoyed their services, their flying to all corners of the globe bug me no end. Don't know why - it just does. Perhaps it's because PSG beat Liverpool in the UEFA cup... I dunno...
Ah well... knock em dead Indigo, knock em dead! Best to you.
That was the UEFA Champions League, I think (and not in the final which PSG just won). Spurs won the UEFA Cup.
Yes. PSG beat Liverpool on their way to the final in the Champions league where they beat AC Milan on Saturday.
Finally there is an air in India! Great story.
Manchester and Amsterdam flights make so much more sense now although they have to do better than Norse wet lease. And Indian government making them give up Turkish wet lease for political reasons.
Wonder if Manchester will be timed to connect with VS from JFK to MAN. If they price it out as a premium economy product to connect with Norse premium cabin, could...
Finally there is an air in India! Great story.
Manchester and Amsterdam flights make so much more sense now although they have to do better than Norse wet lease. And Indian government making them give up Turkish wet lease for political reasons.
Wonder if Manchester will be timed to connect with VS from JFK to MAN. If they price it out as a premium economy product to connect with Norse premium cabin, could be a mid cost winner.
Indigo has 65% domestic market share. Must be a reason for that!
VS already flies LHR to DEL, BOM and BLR, with double daily flights to the first two during the winter. VS and DL offer far more capacity and a higher level of service to India than Indigo can.
There is little reason for VS to push connections from India over MAN compared to LHR.
MAN will benefit from more low cost service and VS will help market it.
The biggest benefit of this partnership...
VS already flies LHR to DEL, BOM and BLR, with double daily flights to the first two during the winter. VS and DL offer far more capacity and a higher level of service to India than Indigo can.
There is little reason for VS to push connections from India over MAN compared to LHR.
MAN will benefit from more low cost service and VS will help market it.
The biggest benefit of this partnership is for the AF/DL/KL/VS partners to gain intra-India connections and for Indigo to get connections beyond SkyTeam carrier hubs.
You're well aware that there's a lack of capacity at LHR. There's also a relative dearth of transatlantic service from English airports outside of London, and LHR really isn't convenient for anyone travelling from/to Birmingham, Leeds, Nottingham etc- multiple, expensive train connections are invariably required while driving is also expensive and prone to delays.
There's definitely an opportunity for the JV partners to create some synergies and combine local demand with connecting traffic while...
You're well aware that there's a lack of capacity at LHR. There's also a relative dearth of transatlantic service from English airports outside of London, and LHR really isn't convenient for anyone travelling from/to Birmingham, Leeds, Nottingham etc- multiple, expensive train connections are invariably required while driving is also expensive and prone to delays.
There's definitely an opportunity for the JV partners to create some synergies and combine local demand with connecting traffic while not needing to worry about capacity constraints. The only thing that's missing is a Skyteam lounge at T2.
@Ben - on a related note, Indigo also recently announced two additional long haul frequencies to Manchester and Amsterdam from Mumbai.
Qantas also has code share flights on Indigo. So far QF only flies into Delhi and Benguluru.
This story proves why you, Ben, get up early.
AF/DL/KL/VS and Indigo could easily move to the largest foreign airline group to/from India. Indigo is simply massive and can provide all the feed the SkyTeam group needs to add whatever service they desire.
and the fact that DL intends to restart service to India is big news. ATL-DEL will be a flight that will be over 17.5 hours westbound under Russian airspace restrictions - something...
This story proves why you, Ben, get up early.
AF/DL/KL/VS and Indigo could easily move to the largest foreign airline group to/from India. Indigo is simply massive and can provide all the feed the SkyTeam group needs to add whatever service they desire.
and the fact that DL intends to restart service to India is big news. ATL-DEL will be a flight that will be over 17.5 hours westbound under Russian airspace restrictions - something only the A350 can do and still carry a viable number of passengers. ATL, BOS, DTW and NYC are all candidate markets for service to India even w/ Russian airspace restrictions.
and BOM will return even w/ Russian airspace restrictions.
on a larger scale, this simply says that DL has waited patiently to regrow its fleet post covid and now has by far the most efficient and capable longhaul fleet among US airlines if not the world even before the A350-1000s arrive. There will be a lot more of new route announcements and partnership that will grow DL's international network to be the most enviable among US carriers.
An interesting article thank you Ben, followed by an informative synopsis, thank you Tim.
One suspects that like me the majority of the readership knows little about IndiGo, flight reviews are scarce …. a future project Ben?
@ AeroB13a -- The Air India A350 and IndiGo A321neo are on my radar for a review trip in the near future.
Thanks again Ben.
Happy to share my experience with IndiGo. Consider that a very large part of its appeal, which helped its growth, is its low cost and branding.
The planes are new and the logos flashy. The flight attendants are all women as part of their ‘girl empowered’ campaign.
Personally I’d avoid it all costs (pun intended). In order to save money the airline doesn’t pay for actual gates. Instead, you get bused out to the plane...
Happy to share my experience with IndiGo. Consider that a very large part of its appeal, which helped its growth, is its low cost and branding.
The planes are new and the logos flashy. The flight attendants are all women as part of their ‘girl empowered’ campaign.
Personally I’d avoid it all costs (pun intended). In order to save money the airline doesn’t pay for actual gates. Instead, you get bused out to the plane on the tarmac and then have to climb up stairs to board (same for elderly and disabled). I’ve literally had to get on a bus when the plane was sitting right in front of the terminal.
You’re only offered water in a cup the size of what the dentist gives you. If you want any other beverage you must pay for a snack.
In some cities the check-in is a nightmare in terms of queues. So, they charge you extra if you want to get into a shorter line. Obviously you pay for seat assignments and luggage. Same if you want to board earlier to avoid a surge of people heading to the bus.
I love India and kudos to them for helping more people fly, but with IndiGo you get nickeled and dimed with flashy branding every step of the way. I have no idea how this would be a ln international product worth flying.
Personally, I’m grateful I can afford to gladly pay a little more for Air India domestically not to deal with so much inconvenience including orderly boarding at an actual gate and get a proper drink when it’s 100F outdoors.
Many thanks …. Love u …. :-)
agree that a recap of Indigo would be helpful and Indian airlines as a whole.
Indigo is the largest airline within India, operates a fleet of about 350 aircraft, and has the 3rd largest market cap among airlines in the world - at $23.5 billion, behind DL and UA.
They have hundreds of aircraft on order and will be a force to be reckoned w/ as they enter the longhaul market.
Indigo until recently has been pretty bog-standard LCC fare. Their main strengths are their route network in India and focus on efficiency (single aircraft type, fast turnarounds, etc.).
Legroom and seat padding leaves a lot to be desired, but the median flight in India is 1.5 hours, and the longest (from the south to Delhi/Srinagar) about 3.5 hours at most, so it doesn't really matter.
There are some reviews on YouTube from Flip-Flop traveller.