IndiGo will soon start flying daily between Pune in the state of Maharashtra and Hubballi in the state of Karnataka, thanks to the good response it has received to its twice-weekly flights on this route. The airline started flying between these two destinations earlier this month and will increase frequency from March.

Daily service from March

Happy with the passenger response it has received for its newly launched Pune-Hubballi service, IndiGo is reportedly planning to increase the flight frequency on the route from the current twice-weekly to daily. The Times of India reports the Hubballi airport director confirming that daily operations to Pune will start from March 13th. It also quotes union minister Pralhad Joshi as saying,

“I have already had a discussion with IndiGo officials and they have given their green signal to operate the daily flight to Pune from Hubballi airport. The flight has been operating twice a week on Saturdays and Sundays since February 4th. Pune, one of the important destinations from Hubballi, will be connected daily from Hubballi from March 13th.”

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Photo: Gcmap.com

Greater connectivity

Situated in northern Karnataka, Hubballi airport was one of the airports included in the government's regional connectivity scheme called UDAN. Earlier, the airport could handle only smaller turboprop airplanes, but its development in recent years means that bigger airplanes like the A320 and Boeing 737 aircraft can also land here. In 2018, IndiGo became the first airline to operate an A320 plane from Hubballi.

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Currently, Hubballi is connected to Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Mysore, and Mangalore almost entirely by IndiGo, with Star Air also operating a flight to Bengaluru.

Indigo Airbus A320
Photo: Suparat Chairatprasert | Shutterstock

Joshi added that efforts are on to further expand the airport's connectivity, and other cities, such as Ahmedabad, Goa, Cochin, and Jodhpur, are also in consideration for future operations.

IndiGo happy with 777 operations

For its international operations, IndiGo is currently exploring its codeshare partnership with Turkish Airlines to the fullest and is seeing a healthy response for the Boeing 777s it has wet-leased from Turkish and also for the connections to Europe it has offered via Istanbul. Moneycontrol quotes IndiGo's Global Sales Head Vinay Malhotra as saying,

“This is a large aircraft, 372 seats in economy, which is what we're filling up, and we have been observing good loads in the past couple of weeks.”

Turkish Airlines Boeing 777
Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying

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IndiGo's partnership with Turkish Airlines now offers around 30 destinations across Europe to Indian passengers. Some of these include Malta, Budapest, Dublin, Prague, Amsterdam, Athens, Copenhagen, and Brussels, among others.

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Source: The Times of India, Moneycontrol