Air India Express enters competition on two regional routes

The Indian aviation sector seems to be moving full throttle ahead, with Air India Express is now entering routes from Bengaluru on which IndiGo has held a monopoly for years – Mangalore and Kannur.

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The two low-cost carriers Bengaluru – Mangalore route Bengaluru – Kannur route New livery launch

Akasa Air seems to be nowhere near the aggressive expansion game, as the airline has currently been on a cancellation and flight rescheduling effort.

The two low-cost carriers

With Go First out of the picture and SpiceJet trying its best to get back in the race, currently IndiGo and Air India Express represent the only competitors in the budget/low-cost carrier league in India.

Up until a few months back, IndiGo was the only airline operating on the Bengaluru – Mangalore – Bengaluru (BLR – IXE – BLR) route.

The airline had notoriously increased the average fare on this service, until recently SpiceJet announced direct flights on the route.

Bengaluru – Mangalore route

Now, Air India express has announced that that it will fly twice daily on BLR – IXE – BLR route effective from 20November 2023. The schedule for the route is as follows:

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Bengaluru – Mangalore

IX 782 – Departs Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport at 11:10am IST and arrives in Mangaluru International Airport at 12:10pm IST.
IX 1795 – Departs Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport at 18:25pm IST and arrives in Mangaluru International Airport at 19:35pm IST.

Mangalore – Bengaluru

IX 678 – Departs Mangaluru International Airport at 12:40pm IST and arrives in Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport at 12:10pm IST.
IX 791 – Departs Mangaluru International Airport at 20:20pm IST and arrives in Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport at 21:30pm IST.

Bengaluru – Kannur route

Simultaneously, Air India Express has also announced another new route between Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport and Kannur International airport (BLR-CNN-BLR).

The airline will operate one daily flight between these two cities effective from 20 November 2023. Initially, the now grounded Go First (formerly known as Go Air) had a huge presence at Kannur International Airport and connected Kannur with Bengaluru.

Currently there are only three flights, and all these flights were operated by IndiGo. Air India Express is all set to break IndiGo’s monopoly on this route as well, by introducing one daily flight on the sector. The schedule for the route is as follows:

Bengaluru –Kannur

IX 782 – Departs Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport at 14:10pm IST and arrives in Kannur International Airport at 16:00pm IST.

New livery launch

Apart from this, more news coming out from Air India Express camp is the launch of their new livery.

Ahead of this, the airline has sent a teaser out on their social media channels which indicated “X – 10”- which translates to a big news/announcement coming out of the airline in next 10 days.