Indian airlines have sharply scaled back operations on the crucial India-West Asia corridor since the outbreak of the Iran-Israel conflict in late February, cutting nearly 1.73 million seats between March and June as airspace restrictions and operational disruptions forced airlines to redraw their networks. While Indian carriers retreated, foreign airlines largely maintained their schedules, underscoring the resilience of their hub-based networks even as several regional carriers expanded capacity on routes where Indian airlines had significantly reduced operations.
An analysis of OAG data shows that Indian airlines reduced their seat capacity to West Asia by nearly 44% to 2.20 million seats in the March-June period from 3.93 million seats during the same period last year. Meanwhile, the combined foreign carriers flying that exact same corridor removed only 10,669 seats total. Their overall capacity declined by just 0.26% to about 3.99 million seats.
Point-to-Point
The sharp divergence reflects contrasting business models adopted by airlines serving one of India’s busiest international markets. Indian carriers, which primarily operate point-to-point services to Gulf destinations, were forced to contend with longer flight times, higher fuel burn, additional crew requirements and increased insurance costs after several West Asian airspaces became inaccessible. Gulf-based airlines, however, leveraged their hub-and-spoke networks to absorb the disruption with minimal changes to overall capacity.
Capacity Slashes Across Carriers
Among Indian airlines, the Air India Group accounted for the largest reduction in capacity on the India-West Asia corridor. Air India Express, whose international network is heavily dependent on Gulf traffic, reduced seat capacity by nearly 45% to 747,375 seats from 1.36 million, while full-service carrier Air India more than halved its operations, cutting capacity by 53.2% to 225,131 seats from 481,382 a year earlier. Together, the two airlines withdrew over 867,000 seats during the March-June period.
IndiGo, the country’s largest airline, reduced its West Asia capacity by 38.6%, lowering scheduled seats from 1.74 million to 1.07 million. Akasa Air registered the steepest percentage decline, cutting capacity by 75.5%, while SpiceJet reduced its footprint by 44.5%.
Rather than continue operating increasingly uneconomical routes, Indian airlines redeployed aircraft to markets offering greater operational certainty and stronger yields. During the March-June period, carriers added more than 93,000 seats each to the United Kingdom and Thailand, nearly 89,000 seats to Italy and close to 79,000 seats to China, where direct passenger services have gradually resumed.
While overall foreign airline capacity remained broadly unchanged, the data reveals varying strategies among carriers. Legacy Gulf airlines such as Emirates, Etihad Airways and Air Arabia largely maintained their operations despite the regional conflict, helping preserve connectivity between India and the West Asia.
At the same time, several regional carriers expanded aggressively. Kuwait Airways increased capacity by 38.9%, adding nearly 60,000 seats despite the overall India-Kuwait market contracting during the period. Saudi Arabian low-cost carrier Flynas expanded its India capacity by 44.2%, while Oman’s SalamAir increased capacity by about 8%.
Royal Jordanian posted the sharpest percentage increase, expanding from a small base of 665 seats in the March-June period last year to more than 13,500 seats this year as it increased services on routes affected by capacity reductions from Indian airlines.
Despite the reduction, West Asia remains India’s single largest international aviation market, supported by a large expatriate population, business travel and transit traffic through Gulf hubs.