In charts: How Indian airlines are going international

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Ahead of the summer season, India's two leading airlines are ramping up their international presence. IndiGo, the market leader in the Indian international segment, has announced four new destinations—Mauritius, Langkawi, Penang and Medinah.

That takes its international destination count to 38. In February, Air India announced more flights on 10 international routes from end-March, as well as new or expanded tie-ups with five foreign carriers covering 48 foreign destinations. In IndiGo’s last earnings call in January, its chief executive officer, Pieter Elbers, gave two reasons why his airline is keenly pursuing international expansion.

The first was the relatively small numbers of Indians flying abroad, and their low frequency of flying, which offered natural room for growth. The second was that foreign airlines had a greater share than Indian ones, and that competitive order could be challenged. Indeed, though Indian airlines still trail foreign carriers, they have come out on the other side of covid with a 4-6 percentage point gain in international share.

They have held that gain since 2022-23, a period when aviation operations across the world have trended towards the normal. In 2023-24, four of the top 10 airlines by passenger share in the Indian international segment were Indian. Three of these four gained share over 2019-20, led by IndiGo.

Airlines that lost share included three prominent West Asian airlines: Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad. Given that West Asia is Indian aviation’s international mainstay, and had posted higher traffic, it meant that Indian airlines had weaned share away from big carriers from the region. Also read | Class war: IndiGo shows Air India it means