Originally Posted by
Sotonsean
I'm aware of IndiGo originally looking at STN prior to the covid pandemic and their allocation of slots at LGW. Obviously I'm also aware of Air India previously serving STN from ATQ and BOM. I'm sure your agree that it's a shame that STN lost Air India.
But this time round with IndiGo potentially leasing six Boeing 789 from Norse Atlantic it seems more likely than they would be using LGW over STN.
That's my opinion anyway.
But personally I would like to see IndiGo announce STN. I think that STN would be a good option for IndiGo. It would also mean that STN would gain another long haul airline to it's airline portfolio and one with direct service to India. IndiGo would probably want to operate from DEL, NMI and possibly BLR.
If and when the CAA eventually lifts their ban on Pakistani airlines just as the EU recently has, perhaps at some point, STN might see the likes of Airblue from ISB.
I don't think they'd automatically favour LGW purely on the basis of leasing Norse aircraft. That will have little if any weighting on their decision making in my view, unless that's specifically part of the negotiation between the airlines. It would be on the basis of competetion and yield and, I loath to say it, perception and prestigiousness. Of course, I'm nonthewiser than anyone else what their outlook would be on that. I would like to see them at STN, and think that STN is ready to take more of this kind of business as a bedrock to their transformation programme, but I'm equally as dubious and could see them quite plausibly favouring LGW.
With regards to Pakistan, as I mentioned a month or two back, this is something MAG may well accommodate if they were approached, but is not likely one of their key targets for long-haul growth. MAG will be concentrating it's commercial effort on solid business cases for Middle East, India, China, Far East and US traffic where there's a more diverse and premium market. Take Air Algerie as the recent example, they're penciling in STN ops for this summer purely on the basis they haven't secured slots for certain days of the week at LHR. If they were rewarded those they'd almost certainly not be looking in STN's direction. I'm still not convinced we'll actually see them operating though STN this summer. If they get rewarded all the slots they've requested at LHR in due course (ie after slot handback) there's virtually no doubt they'll take them up.