IndiGo expands Sri Lanka route with Chennai-Jaffna direct flights

IndiGo, India's largest domestic airline is on an expansion spree as it approaches its 18th anniversary. The airline has announced its 34th international route with daily non-stop flights between Jaffna, Sri Lanka and Chennai. 

The daily flights will commence from September 1, 2024 making Jaffna as IndiGo’s 122nd overall destination. 

The bookings are open from August 1, 2024. With this route, IndiGo will be complementing its existing flights to Colombo by offering the tourists a new access point in Sri Lanka. 

This announcement by IndiGo comes on the backdrop of Sri Lanka being viewed as an exciting and top international tourist destination to Indian tourists. This route also aims at further strengthening the strong cultural and trade ties between India and Sri Lanka.

If we look at the air traffic figures of June 2024, about 28,631 tourists from India travelled to Sri Lanka marking 25.2% of total international arrivals in the country. 

With this figures it is amply evident that Sri Lanka is a tourist hot-spot for Indians seeking oversees travel. IndiGo has strategically eyed this gap in the market and booked the slot for Jaffna. 

The airline currently offers 30 weekly frequencies from 4 Indian destinations -- New Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai to Colombo.

Meanwhile, there is rising anticipation amongst Indian travellers for IndiGo's new business class seats. 

As per sources, IndiGo is expected to unveil these premium services as a part of its 18th anniversary celebration on August 5, 2024. IndiGo had previously said that it plans to introduce this premium business class offering on its busiest routes. 

Interestingly, just a couple of days back IndiGo ramped up its domestic connectivity by announcing new routes connecting Hyderabad to different parts of India. 

The airline will fly 10 daily direct flights between Hyderabad and Ahmedabad in September 2024. The airline also announced direct flights connecting Hyderabad and Hirasar from September 16. 

While IndiGo reinstated its Hyderabad-Udaipur and Hyderabad-Jodhpur route from September 1 and September 3 respectively. 

Further to these routes, IndiGo also planned additional routes connecting Ahmedabad to Amritsar in North and Bhubaneshwar in South India from September 16 and 17 respectively. 

These routes are strategically planned by the airline primarily to enhance regional connectivity eyeing the rising domestic travel market around business and leisure travels. IndiGo's new route will aid passengers from Hyderabad and Ahmedabad to international destinations.

The author is a freelance journalist covering stories related to aviation, aerospace and MRO