Which are the most underserved or unserved routes from India?

binayak · Mon Apr 09, 2018 8:26 am

I wanted to know which are the routes which are not served by airlines from India.
For a long time I wanted to know the international market potential of India and which routes are possible in near future.
Any suggestions are welcome.

anshabhi · Mon Apr 09, 2018 8:45 am

Australia undoubtedly !! There are barely 10 weekly nonstop flight from India to Australia.
Then, due to bilateral restrictions and unfair use of pax as 5th freedom traffic by ME3, even ME routes are becoming under-served now.

I would also like to see more flights to Paro (Bhutan). Almost every intl route looks under-served to me lol !!

rutankrd · Mon Apr 09, 2018 8:47 am

Manchester- UK end

Kashmon · Mon Apr 09, 2018 8:48 am

Auckland
Brisbane

idp5601 · Mon Apr 09, 2018 8:52 am

Better count MNL as well.

zkncj · Mon Apr 09, 2018 8:54 am

Kashmon wrote:
Auckland
Brisbane

The issue with AKL is distance paired with an low yielding market, which in an business sense is very ideal. its better off to feed the traffic via secondary routes that need to fill random seats here and there.

nascar1 · Mon Apr 09, 2018 8:56 am

DEL-BCN

globetrotter94 · Mon Apr 09, 2018 9:01 am

India-Latin America is pretty much nil, and likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. India-East Asia (China/Korea/Japan) also has scope for major growth. Ditto for Central Asia + Turkey. Most surprisingly, India-South Asia. Outside of CCU, not many connections to Bangladesh. Bhutan has improved, but not much. Absolutely no Indian carrier flies to Pakistan. Not much connectivity between the South and Nepal, etc. etc. etc.

So... yeah... I kind of have to agree with the poster above who mentioned pretty much most international markets are under-served from India.

DobboDobbo · Mon Apr 09, 2018 9:23 am

rutankrd wrote:
Manchester- UK end

MAN-BOM is a major European gap:

“In total O&D traffic, Manchester-Mumbai ranks third behind Heathrow and Paris CDG, and way ahead of several routes that have direct services, e.g. Frankfurt, Munich, Brussels, Amsterdam, Zurich and Istanbul,”.

See: http://www.anna.aero/2017/04/12/manches ... -the-week/

It seems there is a decent chance that Jet and VS will cover MAN-DEL/BOM in reasonably short order.

dredgy · Mon Apr 09, 2018 9:44 am

As mentioned, Brisbane to Delhi has often been mentioned (I think last mention was Skyscanner) as one of the most searched for unserved routes. I’ve heard many complaints from Indians living in Auckland how hard/expensive it is to get home to see family.

Pakistan is an obvious choice as well, if governmental relations warmed a bit, then people from both countries would flock there.

Suriname, Guyana and Trinidad all have significant populations of people who visit India, but I can’t think of a way anyone could currently make that profitable.

binayak · Mon Apr 09, 2018 10:08 am

Thank you all for the above information.
Any US route by the way?

devmapper · Mon Apr 09, 2018 11:01 am

binayak wrote:
Thank you all for the above information.
Any US route by the way?

LAX is in planning stages by AI (I think they have officially asked for slots from LAWA), but I don't think they have the frames to start the route. From a population perspective, it has the next highest number of people of Indian origin after IAD.

oskarclare · Mon Apr 09, 2018 11:01 am

Is AI with BNE near?

GRJGeorge · Mon Apr 09, 2018 11:08 am

Probably also South Africa...at some point there were 2 flights a day on BOM-JNB, now nothing...one route that got totally taken over by 1-stop connections with strong competition...EK, EY, QR, ET, KQ, WB, HM, MK and even TK, SV and UU.
Maybe the time is right for an Indian carrier to operate 3 or 4 weekly flights again, 787 or A330

unrave · Mon Apr 09, 2018 11:54 am

oskarclare wrote:
Is AI with BNE near?

I would expect AI to go daily on SYD and MEL before starting another Australian route

MileHFL400 · Mon Apr 09, 2018 12:22 pm

East Africa. KQ has two dailies to BOM but none of the Indian airlines serve any point in EA for some reason.

klm617 · Mon Apr 09, 2018 12:26 pm

DTW, ATL, IAH and DFW

devmapper · Mon Apr 09, 2018 3:25 pm

klm617 wrote:
DTW, ATL, IAH and DFW

Isn't DTW and ATL connected via the DL-AF-KL-9W alliance via AMS/CDG?

binayak · Mon Apr 09, 2018 4:27 pm

devmapper wrote:
klm617 wrote:
DTW, ATL, IAH and DFW

Isn't DTW and ATL connected via the DL-AF-KL-9W alliance via AMS/CDG?

That doesn't mean that the market is served. If you consider JVs then there is no unserved route. I was asking for potential future non-stops from India.

PatrickZ80 · Mon Apr 09, 2018 4:36 pm

Russia isn't served very well from India either. Mumbai - Moscow is completely unserved for example and Delhi - Moscow is only served by Aeroflot.

MIAFLLPBIFlyer · Mon Apr 09, 2018 4:38 pm

PatrickZ80 wrote:
Russia isn't served very well from India either. Mumbai - Moscow is completely unserved for example and Delhi - Moscow is only served by Aeroflot.

Air India bombed on DEL-DME. Don't expect more capacity in this market any time soon.

MIAFLLPBIFlyer · Mon Apr 09, 2018 4:39 pm

DobboDobbo wrote:
rutankrd wrote:
Manchester- UK end

MAN-BOM is a major European gap:

“In total O&D traffic, Manchester-Mumbai ranks third behind Heathrow and Paris CDG, and way ahead of several routes that have direct services, e.g. Frankfurt, Munich, Brussels, Amsterdam, Zurich and Istanbul,”.

See: http://www.anna.aero/2017/04/12/manches ... -the-week/

It seems there is a decent chance that Jet and VS will cover MAN-DEL/BOM in reasonably short order.

THIS is the winner. Sooner or later someone will fly both BOM-MAN and DEL-MAN. Likely the 9W/VS combo as you state.

MIAFLLPBIFlyer · Mon Apr 09, 2018 4:41 pm

MileHFL400 wrote:
East Africa. KQ has two dailies to BOM but none of the Indian airlines serve any point in EA for some reason.

AI served several destinations for years but the shift of the hub to DEL may have impacted this. NBO-BOM had been rumored to come back online at some point but I would not hold my breathe.

CHI787ORD · Mon Apr 09, 2018 4:50 pm

China-India is very underserved

KiloRomeoDelta · Mon Apr 09, 2018 5:08 pm

India-China without a doubt! You have the world's two most populated countries with over 2 billion people between them, and yet a mere half dozen flights from the entire country-

1. DEL-PEK Air China
2. DEL-PVG China Eastern
3. DEL-PVG Air India
4. DEL-CAN China Southern
5. DEL-KMG Shandong Airlines - NEW!
6. BOM-PEK Air China
7. CCU-KMG China Eastern

That's it! That's the entirety of India-China flights!

binayak · Mon Apr 09, 2018 5:36 pm

KiloRomeoDelta wrote:
India-China without a doubt! You have the world's two most populated countries with over 2 billion people between them, and yet a mere half dozen flights from the entire country-

1. DEL-PEK Air China
2. DEL-PVG China Eastern
3. DEL-PVG Air India
4. DEL-CAN China Southern
5. DEL-KMG Shandong Airlines - NEW!
6. BOM-PEK Air China
7. CCU-KMG China Eastern

That's it! That's the entirety of India-China flights!

Isn't AI DEL PVG actually BOM DEL PVG? As far as I have noticed that flight is without any gauge change at DEL.

Kadish · Mon Apr 09, 2018 6:18 pm

MAD-DEL

Feroze · Mon Apr 09, 2018 6:51 pm

Kadish wrote:
MAD-DEL

Madrid is currently served 3 times/week - is that underserved?

Delhi Madrid AI 0135 .2.4.6. 14:55 20:20 B787
Madrid Delhi AI 0136 .2.4.6. 21:50 11:05+1 B787

berari · Mon Apr 09, 2018 7:38 pm

binayak wrote:
I wanted to know which are the routes which are not served by airlines from India.
For a long time I wanted to know the international market potential of India and which routes are possible in near future.
Any suggestions are welcome.

Nice try Air India route planning department!

PatrickZ80 · Mon Apr 09, 2018 7:44 pm

berari wrote:
Nice try Air India route planning department!

Judging by his signature it's Jet Airways, and there certainly are opportunities for them.

zakuivcustom · Mon Apr 09, 2018 8:08 pm

KiloRomeoDelta wrote:
India-China without a doubt! You have the world's two most populated countries with over 2 billion people between them, and yet a mere half dozen flights from the entire country-

1. DEL-PEK Air China
2. DEL-PVG China Eastern
3. DEL-PVG Air India
4. DEL-CAN China Southern
5. DEL-KMG Shandong Airlines - NEW!
6. BOM-PEK Air China
7. CCU-KMG China Eastern

That's it! That's the entirety of India-China flights!

Most Indian business (or even VFR) presence in greater China are in Hong Kong anyway (dating back to colonial era), and there are more flights from HKG alone to India (Something like 4 daily to DEL and 3 daily to BOM, not counting flights to CCU or HYD or BLR) than the whole mainland China. If anything, there are (at max) 50k Indians in mainland China, and that's a high estimate (Official number is closer to 15k). Meanwhile, there are 25k-30k Indians in Hong Kong alone, and a very bipolar group (in terms of income) of people also (Seems to me it's like half are poor, unskilled labor while the other half are (very) rich professionals/businesspeople).

Australia is definitely underserved, though, with that huge Indian diaspora there. Somewhere in there, SQ (and its subsidary) are laughing all the way to the bank.

ronitkadam777 · Mon Apr 09, 2018 9:16 pm

Was at ANC airport last evening and could quickly count 7-8 747Fs belonging to various Chinese Carriers. Looks like India really misses out largely on a cargo airline front.

winginit · Mon Apr 09, 2018 9:57 pm

berari wrote:
binayak wrote:
I wanted to know which are the routes which are not served by airlines from India.
For a long time I wanted to know the international market potential of India and which routes are possible in near future.
Any suggestions are welcome.

Nice try Air India route planning department!

"Yes Mr. President, and we are happy to report that we found a way to get around those pesky MIDT subscription costs by simply posing questions to Airliners.net. Here are our recommendations for new routes"

zakuivcustom · Mon Apr 09, 2018 10:07 pm

ronitkadam777 wrote:
Was at ANC airport last evening and could quickly count 7-8 747Fs belonging to various Chinese Carriers. Looks like India really misses out largely on a cargo airline front.

To be fair, while there is no Indian cargo carrier, there is no reason for them to use ANC even if there is one. Between the like of DWC or European cargo airports, such as LEJ or CGN or LUX, that handle pretty much most of the cargo heading to Americas.

SonaSounds · Mon Apr 09, 2018 10:08 pm

The USA West Coast in greatly under served. Only nonstop link is Air India's SFO-DEL flight which just last month went from 6x-9x a week. The Bay Area alone has over 2200 people a day going each way to India and LAX is not far behind that. That's not even including smaller amounts from SEA, PDX, SAN, LAS, etc

Over 4.5k California PDEWs with only ~300 seats offered a day. Very under served imo

Armaghman · Mon Apr 09, 2018 10:15 pm

zakuivcustom wrote:
KiloRomeoDelta wrote:
India-China without a doubt! You have the world's two most populated countries with over 2 billion people between them, and yet a mere half dozen flights from the entire country-

1. DEL-PEK Air China
2. DEL-PVG China Eastern
3. DEL-PVG Air India
4. DEL-CAN China Southern
5. DEL-KMG Shandong Airlines - NEW!
6. BOM-PEK Air China
7. CCU-KMG China Eastern

That's it! That's the entirety of India-China flights!

Having lived in China and flown to Delhi, I was surprised by these numbers. So much so had to look into myself!

A good article below highlighting that China Southern has 60-70% transfer passengers.

Also couldn’t believe when I searched Mumbai Beijing for June and only£245 with Singapore Airlines! £50 cheaper than Singapore to Beijing in same dates with 6hrs more flying!

Also cargo demand enough to warrant its own flight to Bangalore, from Kunming

https://m.timesofindia.com/india/indian ... 160849.cms

kriskim · Mon Apr 09, 2018 10:24 pm

unrave wrote:
I would expect AI to go daily on SYD and MEL before starting another Australian route

Would love to see either 9W or AI launch BOM-MEL/SYD too.

TryToFlySomeday · Mon Apr 09, 2018 10:27 pm

I'd like to see PHL-DEL on AA.

ADrum23 · Mon Apr 09, 2018 10:29 pm

There are no routes between BLR and anywhere in the US. I wonder if that will ever change.

rbavfan · Mon Apr 09, 2018 11:50 pm

dredgy wrote:
As mentioned, Brisbane to Delhi has often been mentioned (I think last mention was Skyscanner) as one of the most searched for unserved routes. I’ve heard many complaints from Indians living in Auckland how hard/expensive it is to get home to see family.

Pakistan is an obvious choice as well, if governmental relations warmed a bit, then people from both countries would flock there.

Suriname, Guyana and Trinidad all have significant populations of people who visit India, but I can’t think of a way anyone could currently make that profitable.

AKL-India is expensive and they want it cheaper. Thats why there is no service VFR is all low yield prices.

directorguy · Tue Apr 10, 2018 12:21 am

DEL to CAI.
MS flies 3x or 4x weekly CAI-BOM using a 738 but obv this is inadequate as most of the traffic goes to other ME carriers. I would think given that DEL is a major city and the *A link that this would be served.

lutfi · Tue Apr 10, 2018 1:13 am

basically anything to Pakistan

unrave · Tue Apr 10, 2018 3:14 am

CJB-DXB. CJB is the only south Indian airport with international status that does not have connectivity to DXB. In 2008 flydubai announced CJB as one of its launch destinations in India. It had even opened a ticketing office at CJB airport anticipating a favourable change in bilaterals to allow it to operate to CJB. That did not materialise and even 10 years later CJB does not have any carrier flying to DXB.

G500Captain · Tue Apr 10, 2018 3:37 am

DFW is the second largest H1B visa population (of which a very large percentage are from India) in the US behind New York City. Definitely a large unserved market.

CaliguyNYC · Tue Apr 10, 2018 3:37 am

So I took the question to be what routes are underserved. But then the poster also asks routes that Insdian airlines don’t serve. For underserved routes, you need to have pax demand with few flights. Pakistan is not really underserved, because pax flows between the two countries via air is not that big. Most pax take the train or bus. I feel like people are taking the question as what routes should be flown. I can’t comment as I don’t have pax figures between city pairs that are flying now as one stops. That is really how one should answer this

Feroze · Tue Apr 10, 2018 3:46 am

unrave wrote:
CJB-DXB. CJB is the only south Indian airport with international status that does not have connectivity to DXB. In 2008 flydubai announced CJB as one of its launch destinations in India. It had even opened a ticketing office at CJB airport anticipating a favourable change in bilaterals to allow it to operate to CJB. That did not materialise and even 10 years later CJB does not have any carrier flying to DXB.

I have to agree!

I need to go to Coimbatore from London soon and thought that using the newish Sri Lankan service via Colombo might be a better option than EK or QR via Dubai/Doha and Chennai/Bangalore/Hyderabad. However, although it's timed beautifully on the outbound from LHR, there's an almost 24 hour transit in CMB on the way back.

Back to the drawing board!

Air Arabia does fly to Sharjah a few times per week.

stl07 · Tue Apr 10, 2018 4:16 am

Id love to see other airlines besides the AC/UA/AI to North America. How can one alliance be the sole provider of services between the 2nd most populous country and all of north america

dmstorm22 · Tue Apr 10, 2018 4:32 am

ADrum23 wrote:
There are no routes between BLR and anywhere in the US. I wonder if that will ever change.

I remember CO was planning to start this way back when.

Still think it could work from EWR (though it would be heavy VFR in back, there is likely enough business to fill J), or SFO with tech on each end. They have the planes to make it work (both AI and UA).

hardheid · Tue Apr 10, 2018 4:54 am

There is a large Indian community in Jakarta, but no direct flight to India.

sand26391 · Tue Apr 10, 2018 5:28 am

ADrum23 wrote:
There are no routes between BLR and anywhere in the US. I wonder if that will ever change.

dmstorm22 wrote:
ADrum23 wrote:
There are no routes between BLR and anywhere in the US. I wonder if that will ever change.

I remember CO was planning to start this way back when.

Still think it could work from EWR (though it would be heavy VFR in back, there is likely enough business to fill J), or SFO with tech on each end. They have the planes to make it work (both AI and UA).

In the next 3-4 years BLR will be connected to 8-9 cities from this list. Talks with Intl airlines are on and it's very positive for now... Talks with Gulf Air turned out fruitful & the airline will start daily BLR-BAH wef 1st May. So BAH is off the list, next BLR is targeting EAST/North East Asia for expansion like Tokyo, PVG for NA connectivity...

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