Originally Posted by
FlyGatwick
This seems to be part of a wider schedule review at AI as they've not only withdrawn their most recently filed Gatwick-Bengaluru and Delhi-Hanoi schedule listings but have done the same as well re previously listed schedules to Dallas, LA and Seattle. So, as I already said earlier, this appears to be a temporary adjustment driven by staff shortages and supply chain issues. Hopefully, Gatwick-Bengaluru (and the other previously posted schedule updates) will be back on again later during the year.
Further on the topic of potential new Gatwick-India scheduled services, according to a Bloomberg report, Indigo - India's biggest airline by fleet size, flights and passengers - is mulling placing an order for 30 A350s to expand into long-haul with its own equipment. If Indigo really do this, they can be expected to launch daily flights from Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru to London. Given the slot situation at Heathrow and that as a financially responsible airline they'd probably not want to follow in Kingfisher's and Jet Airways' footsteps to pay top dollar for Heathrow slots even before their first long-haul flight to London has left India, they'd probably look to Gatwick instead rather than Stansted (the only other plausible London area airport capable of accommodating a widebody operating non-stop to / from India without payload restrictions). However, given Airbus' growing A350 backlog and lengthening delivery times, I wouldn't expect this to happen before 2026 at the earliest.
Indigo I believe were close to launching at STN before Covid hit but were planning on running A321neos with a potential stopover. That plan was then dropped in favour of securing wide body aircraft I believe. I agree with that model they'd probably favour LGW, especially with Air India now established there too.
I do think though the Amritsar service by Air India was well suited to STN in the time it operated. Loads were good and as a heavily VFR targeted route, STN was geographically better placed to that market than LGW. But since they were moving most of their point-to-point routes to India out of LHR it makes total sense why they consolidated at LGW. If the slot situation ever gets to a point at LGW that they cannot add additional capacity such as Bengaluru that they may like, I wouldn't be surprised then to maybe see the Amritsar route go back to STN.