India's airlines are preparing to increase flights to Southeast Asian destinations which are emerging as new hubs for Indian outbound travel as countries ease visa rules and sign new air service agreements with New Delhi.
Just before the onset of the summer travel season, India and Thailand last week finalised an agreement that will allow airlines to deploy more flights between the two countries.
In a meeting in Bangkok, the countries agreed to increase capacity by 14,000 seats per week for both sides which is an increase by 43%.
Government officials said that the increment will be done in two phases of 7,000 each.
The government has also distributed flying rights of Go First - which were given to the airline before its bankruptcy filing - among other Indian airlines, allowing them to increase flights to destinations including Bangkok, Phuket and Singapore.
Traffic to Southeast Asian countries like Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia is increasing exponentially after the countries eased visa regime for India.
The next phase of flight expansion between India and Thailand will be initiated when carriers of any side have utilised 80% of their existing seat share, an official aware of the development told ET.
Flying rights are allocated on a bilateral reciprocal basis by the government to airlines of their country. Airlines cannot operate more flights than they are allotted.
Currently, Indian airlines have 32,000 seats while Thai carriers can operate 29,500 seats per week. The need for expanding the agreement arose because Thai carriers have exhausted their allocation and Indian airlines have used 80% of their share.
Indian airlines have also got the rights to operate flights to four new airports in Thailand - Udon Thani, Surat Thani, Hat Yai and Chiang Rai.
"This is a very positive development for passengers and airlines of India," an airline executive said. "While there will be more flights, leading to rationalisation of air fare, Indian airlines now have access to all 10 Thai international airports," said the person who requested not to be identified.
Starting November 10, 2023, Thailand has allowed visa exemption to Indian travellers for stay up to 30 days up to May 10, 2024. The country is likely to increase the exemption period due to strong response.
According to Tourism Authority of Thailand, visa exemption has resulted in an increase of daily Indian arrivals from 4,000 to 5,500 people.
Indians are travelling abroad like never before and Southeast Asian countries are trying to capitalise on that as growth from China slows down.
Vietnam is looking to provide visa free entry to Indians from the middle of this year, travel industry sources said.
India is now Vietnam's fastest growing tourism market with the number of visitors from India last year exceeding 390,000, up 231% from pre-Covid 2019.
"I don't think there is a single country which doesn't have an India plan," said Omri Morgenshtern, CEO of online travel platform Agoda. "This country is the tourism powerhouse currently."
Agoda saw Bangkok surpassing Dubai as the most searched destination after the announcement of visa-free regime, while for Malaysia it increased by 90%, he said. "Once visa restrictions are off, people can travel without a lot of planning. So, all of a sudden you see a spurt in growth," Morgenshtern said.
Airline executives said they are mounting more flights between India and Southeast Asian countries as footfall grows.
Air Asia has increased weekly flights between Malaysia and India to 69 in the first quarter of 2024, connecting Kuala Lumpur to nine cities in India - Bengaluru, Kolkata, Kochi, Hyderabad, Chennai, Tiruchirappalli, New Delhi, Amritsar and Thiruvananthapuram.
Air India has launched four weekly flights to Phuket from Delhi starting December while IndiGo has connected Bali in Indonesia from Bengaluru.
