BENGALURU- India’s largest LCC IndiGo Airlines (6E) has added yet another gem to its list with its launch of yet another destination in Malaysia. Travelers seeking for a holiday now have a new option to explore.
IndiGo has started flying daily to Langkawi (LGK) in Malaysia from Bengaluru (BLR) in India. A great achievement for the airline as Langkawi will be IndiGo’s 36th international destination and 124th overall destination to join the extensive 6E network.
IndiGo Langkawi, Malaysia Flights
This highlights IndiGo’s aim to connect passengers between India and Malaysia, an attractive market for leisure travelers. Known as the Jewel of Kedah, Langkawi is rightly considered a fabulous holiday stop.
With its white sandy beaches and attractive tourist destinations with majestic landscapes and duty-free shopping, the island offers a unique experience for vacationers. The island is a part of an archipelago of 99 islands.
The first flight from Bengaluru departed with a slight delay at 03:56 instead of its scheduled departure time of 03:40 am IST.
However, the flight reached Langkawi ahead of time by close to 10 minutes. The plane landed at 10:18 am Local time at Langkawi International Airport. The flight had a flying time of 3 hours and 52 minutes.
The return flight from Langkawi, Malaysia, departed Langkawi (LGK) at 11:38 am local time with a slight delay of 15 minutes instead of its scheduled departure time of 11:25 am local time.
However, just like the Bengaluru-Langkawi flight, this flight too reached Bengaluru (BLR) 15 minutes early compared to its scheduled arrival time of 12:55 pm IST. The plane landed at 12:40 pm IST at Kempegowda International Airport. The flight had a flying time of 3 hours and 33 minutes.
As per the Bangalore SkyUpdates, the flight departed with an impressive load of over 85% on the very first flight. Even though Langkawi is a brand-new destination for the airline as well as the passengers, this indicates that the flights are already quite popular among the travelers.
Why Langkawi and Not Others?
Malaysia witnessed over 231 million visitors in 2023. Out of these 231 million visitors, over 20 million visitors were international tourists in 2023 and the rest were domestic travelers.
Langkawi, during the same period, received 2.5 million tourists a 150% growth compared to 2021 when numbers dropped due to COVID-19. This reflects that Langkawi is a really popular destination among holiday seekers.
Malaysia witnessed over 1 million Indian tourists in 2023. And as of November 2024, Malaysia had already reached a figure of 1 million Indian tourists for the year. This shows that the market is ever-growing.
Malaysia has a large Indian diaspora, with about 2.75 million Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) living in the country. This makes up about 9% of Malaysia’s population.
Malaysia has been promoting tourism from India, with a focus on sustainable tourism and niche products like shopping, luxury travel, and sports tourism. The country also offers visa-free travel for Indian nationals who live abroad.
These IndiGo flights to Langkawi are perfectly timed to serve the ever-growing tourist demand between the two countries. Passengers can now conveniently fly to this popular holiday island non-stop or one-stop via Bengaluru (BLR).
Earlier, the only option was via Kuala Lumpur (KUL) where the traveling times would have been as long as 7-9 hours each way, compared to just 4 hours with these non-stop flights.
Why Bengaluru-Langkawi?
While the growing demand for Langkawi and to Malaysia is evident, many might wonder why IndiGo opted for Bengaluru (BLR) over its more prominent international hubs in Delhi (DEL) and Mumbai (BOM).
Delhi and Mumbai may be the largest hubs for IndiGo’s international operations, but Bengaluru stands out as the airline’s second-largest base for domestic departures. This extensive domestic network from Bengaluru likely played the main role in the decision, as the airline can provide seamless connectivity for passengers from various Indian cities to Langkawi via Bengaluru.
Further, time-wise, these new flights to Langkawi almost coincide with the earlier announced Bengaluru-Mauritius (MRU) by the airline.
IndiGo has been flying to Mauritius (MRU) 4 times per week since November 2024 from Bengaluru (BLR), and from what it appears, it seems they can operate the flights successfully.
Langkawi (LGK) flights, just like Bali (DPS) and Mauritius (MRU), have been intelligently arranged with the airline’s domestic bank in Bengaluru.
From the demand side, Langkawi has only seen some 4,300 passengers per annum traveling from Bengaluru during 2023, translating to around 6 PDEW passengers per day each way.
As seen, the number appears modest but IndiGo seems to rely on transfer traffic from its network within the country to make passengers loads healthy.
This portrays something bigger than what it appears. IndiGo probably has a further long-term strategy of making Bengaluru as its hub for South East Asia.
The airline’s vast domestic network from Bengaluru combined with increasing international routes is going to be a gateway for passengers from the whole country to easily connect within South East Asia via Bengaluru.
Tail Note
While the current number of passengers from Bengaluru (BLR) may seem too low to support a daily flight, However, it must also be understood that the introduction of non-stop routes usually has a positive effect in increasing demand between the two cities.
There have been countless occasions in the past where the introduction of direct flights has enabled direct access to markets that have been ignored before.
Phuket (HKT) is a good example here. From the time when G8 and 6E started operations to Phuket, it was quite on the lower side. But now, this region has proved the markets to be very dynamic and now major Indian cities have multiple daily service to Phuket.
As for Langkawi, it could follow a similar trajectory. Demand might feel to be at the lower ends now and then it might make its way up to the higher levels.
The non-stop service by IndiGo could enable various other avenues for passengers and businesses, therefore increasing the traffic in the Bengaluru-Langkawi sector.
But as much as these avenues open demand, these questions remain, Will IndiGo be able to sustain this route for the longer time frame? This will be an interesting area to watch how the airline strategy pans out.
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