Indian aviation mkt ‘booming’; to expand routes with IndiGo: Air France-KLM

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Bullish on a “booming” Indian aviation market, major European carrier Air France-KLM is keen to expand routes and capacity as well as increase codeshare routes with IndiGo, according to senior executives.

Air France-KLM, which has increased its seat capacity by 22 percent compared to 2022, operates as many as 46 weekly flights connecting four Indian cities – Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai.

It also has a codeshare agreement with the country’s leading airline IndiGo for more than 30 cities.

“We want to increase capacity and routes… We would like to expand with IndiGo… The ambition is to do more international (flights),” Claude Sarr, general manager for Indian subcontinent at KLM Air France, told PTI.

He added that plans are under discussion in this regard.

The token exchange allows the airline to book its passengers on its partner carriers and provide seamless travel to destinations where it does not exist.

India is one of the world’s fastest growing aviation markets, and KLM Air France Group has recorded 1 million passenger traffic on Indian routes in 2022.

After the coronavirus pandemic, Sari said the demand for air traffic is increasing and “the aviation industry is booming in India”.

Earlier this week, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines introduced ‘Premium Comfort Class’ on flights between various Indian cities and Amsterdam.

Passengers are looking for more and more quality, and they are willing to pay extra for good services,” said Christian van de Coppell, Commercial Director of Indian Subcontinent Air at KLM Air France.

“The 22 per cent increase in seat capacity (compared to 2022) at Air India also shows that India is a very pivotal market for KLM Air France… We are flexible in the use and use of our aircraft on Air India,” he said. .

They shared their views during a virtual interaction with PTI.

While talking about the Indian aviation market, Sari said that DigiYatra is a good initiative and also stressed the need to promote as well as produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

Air France – KLM is a major player in international air transport. The group’s global network offers flights to more than 300 destinations, covered by Air France, KLM KLM and Transavia, according to its website.

(Only the title and image for this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard team; the rest of the content is generated automatically from a shared feed.)