Low-cost airline IndiGo is looking to launch flights to London and other European cities through a one-stop route via Tbilisi and Baku. The airline is in discussion with both airports and is planning to start the route by March next year.

The airline, which will operate the route with an Airbus A321 aircraft, will use the airports as a technical stop that will basically be used to refuel the aircraft. During a technical stop, passengers are not allowed to disembark from the aircraft.

“The airline is in discussion with Istanbul, Tbilisi and Baku airports for their one-stop flight to Europe. Since Istanbul airport has high landing charges, Baku or Tbilisi is likely to be the airport through which the airline will operate to Europe,” said a person aware of the development.

“From February 2019, IndiGo plans to launch flights between India and Georgia. The airline had shown its interest in the Georgian aviation market back in the summer of 2018. The meetings with the Georgian side in August were organised by TAV Holding", a statement from TAV Holdings, which operate the Tbilisi airport, said.

The airline, which will compete against full-service airlines like British Airways, Air India and Jet Airways, plans to market the route by offering it at a 30 per cent lower fare. Travel industry executives said that if IndiGo is able to offer a 30 per cent lower fare, it will be able to create a new class of flyers.

“Such airlines always open up a totally new segment of the market. Even in the domestic market, they created a complete new segment of travellers. Regular Indian flyers to Europe may stick with the established carriers, but in a country as large as India, there might be takers who may be taking a tougher flight so that they can spend time doing some extra things on their holiday,” said Subhash Goyal, chairman, STIC Travel.

However, experts said that it will not be easy for the airline to do so. “Having a one-stop flight to European cities will put the airline against other full-service carriers which also offer a one-stop flight. Secondly, a lot of revenue comes from cargo, which will be minimal in a narrow body. Without an advantage in capacity deployment, it would be difficult for IndiGo to emulate what they did in domestic travel,” said Ameya Joshi, founder of airline blog Network Thoughts.

IndiGo, which had evinced interest to build a low-cost long-haul network, recently changed its aircraft order book by upgrading 125 A320 Neos to the larger variant A321 Neo. These aircraft will take around four hours to reach Baku or Tbilisi airport from where it would take another four hours.

IndiGo’s A321 Neos will come with 222 seats in a single-class configuration with one additional fuel tank that will increase the aircraft’s range to six hours. "What we are planning right now is taking one extra fuel tank so that we can fly in six hours,” Greg Taylor, CEO appointee at IndGo said.

A high fuel price environment and aircraft acquisition cost resulted in IndiGo’s change of plans to operate flights to Europe with wide-body planes. The airline, which is known to be a tough bargainer, changed plans on acquiring the Airbus A330 Neo through which it had initially planned to launch direct flights to European cities of Paris and London. “Currently operating long-haul flights with wide-body aircraft is an aspiration rather than a plan,” Taylor said.

IndiGo is in talks with Gatwick Airport to finalise slot timings. Queries sent to Baku Airport did not elicit a response.