Aegean Airlines and IndiGo open Greece-India non-stop market, plan codeshare

Posted 01/10/2025 09:45

Aegean Airlines, Greece's largest airline, and IndiGo, India's largest airline, have signed an MoU for a codeshare partnership.

Both airlines also plan to launch services between Greece and India in 2026. Both will deploy Airbus A321neo XLR aircraft to serve this market. They will be the only operators of non-stop flights between the two countries.

The opening up of Greece-India services and the planned codeshare agreement between Aegean and IndiGo are significant strategic developments for both airlines.

Summary

IndiGo and Aegean Airlines plan a codeshare agreement and to launch non-stop Greece-India flights in 2026.
Aegean’s India services will be its first in Asia and will become its longest routes.
Aegean will serve India with narrowbody aircraft (A321neo XLR) and will add further longer routes with four A321neo LRs.
Star Alliance will remain Aegean’s main source for connectivity partners, but IndiGo will add to its significant number of codeshares outside the alliance.
Athens will be IndiGo’s fifth Europe destination. Norse Atlantic operates to Europe on IndiGo’s behalf, but IndiGo will serve Athens with its own A321neo XLR aircraft.

IndiGo and Aegean will carry each other's codes

Under the planned codeshare agreement, IndiGo will carry Aegean's A3 code on a "significant number" of its routes in India.

Aegean will carry IndiGo's B6 code on routes from its main hub at Athens to destinations within Greece and across Europe.

The two operators will provide further details of the codeshare "in due course", but the agreement will enable customers of both airlines to access routes for travel between India, Greece, Europe and South Asia on a single ticket.

Both airlines plan non-stop Greece-India flights in 2026

The MoU for a codeshare follows announcements from both airlines about plans to launch routes to each other's country.

Aegean plans to commence services from Greece to India by Mar-2026, starting with five times weekly flights from Athens to Delhi. Subsequently, it plans to add a three times weekly service from Athens to Mumbai.

For its part, IndiGo plans flights to Greece from Jan-2026, starting with six weekly flights to Athens from both Delhi and Mumbai.

These will be the first direct connections between Greece and India.

Aegean's India services will be its first in Asia…

Aegean's flights to India will be its first destinations in Asia and its first outside Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

According to data from CAPA - Centre for Aviation/OAG for the week of 22-Sep-2025, its capacity is dominated by Europe, which accounts for 96.0% of Aegean's international ASKs (58.4% in Eastern/Central Europe and 37.6% in Western Europe).

Aegean Airlines Group: international departing ASKs by region, week of 22-Sep-2025

Source: CAPA - Centre for Aviation, OAG.

International routes account for 89.3% of Aegean's total ASKs, so its European international network has a dominant share of its total capacity (85.8% of total ASKs).

…and will become its longest routes

Aegean's longest route currently is Athens to Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, a flight time of approximately five and a half hours over a distance of c.3,800km (c.2,100 nautical miles).

Its two new routes to India will exceed this by a significant margin, both reaching c.5,000km (c.2,700 nautical miles).

Aegean will serve India with narrowbody aircraft (A321neo XLR)…

Aegean has no widebody aircraft in its fleet and no orders for widebodies. However, the services to Delhi and Mumbai are within the range of narrowbody aircraft.

Its current aircraft order book of 22 Airbus A321neos includes two A321neo XLR variants. This can operate up to 10.5 hours over a range of up to 8,700km (4,800 nm) and so can comfortably reach Aegean's India destinations.

Aegean's two A321neo XLRs are expected to be delivered in Dec-2025 and Jan-2026, in time for its planned Mar-2026 launch of services to India.

…and will add further longer routes with four A321neo LRs

These two extra long range aircraft will be joined by four A321neo LRs, which have a longer range than the standard A321neo and are due to be delivered in 2027 and 2028.

Aegean has said that all six of its long range/extra long range A321neo aircraft will be fitted out to offer passengers a level of comfort suited to long haul flights. They will have more personal space, inflight entertainment, satellite wifi, USB and device charging and extra large overhead luggage bins.

Following the acquisition of all six of what it calls its "special purpose" sub-fleet, Aegean will consider the launch of additional longer routes.

These could include destinations such as Almaty, Bangalore, Seychelles, Maldives, Nairobi and Lagos.

Star Alliance will remain Aegean's main source for connectivity partners…

As an airline group focused until now entirely on short/medium haul routes - almost all in Europe - Aegean joined the Star Alliance in 2010.

With no long haul routes of its own, and few long haul routes by any airlines from Athens, Star Alliance membership offers Aegean's passengers access to a worldwide network through partner carriers.

More broadly, this is also important for the connectivity of Greece, where Aegean is the largest airline.

The addition of long range narrowbodies will provide Aegean with more options for longer direct routes. Nevertheless, with only six long range A321neo variants, it will still rely significantly on partnerships with other airlines for global connections.

The majority of Aegean's codeshare and interlining partners are Star Alliance members and the alliance is likely to remain the main source of commercial collaborations for it.

…but IndiGo will add to its significant number of codeshares outside the alliance

However, as Aegean CEO Dimitris Gerogiannis told the CAPA Airline Leader Summit - Airlines in Transition in Athens in May-2025, "when we see opportunities outside Star Alliance, obviously we will go for those opportunities".

Of its 24 codeshare partners, 15 are either members of the Star Alliance or are subsidiaries of Star members. This means that a significant minority of Aegean's codeshare partners, nine of them, have a purely bilateral relationship with it.

Airlines and Alliances - understanding the mutual benefits with Aegean Airlines and Star Alliance at the CAPA Airline Leader Summit - Airlines in Transition in Athens in May-2025.

Source: CAPA TV.

IndiGo will add to Aegean's bilateral commercial partnerships, becoming its first partner based in India.

IndiGo will not be Aegean's first low cost airline codeshare partner. It already codeshares with airBaltic, Eurowings and Volotea.

Athens will be IndiGo's fifth destination in Europe…

For IndiGo, Athens services will further grow its nascent European network. The Indian low cost airline launched services from Mumbai to Amsterdam and Manchester in Jul-2025.

It plans to add flights from Mumbai to Copenhagen and from either Delhi or Mumbai to London Heathrow in Oct-2025. The Mumbai-Copenhagen service is already available for booking, but the London service still awaits confirmation.

Athens will become IndiGo's fifth destination in Europe (provided that its Heathrow flights become operational).

See related CAPA - Centre for Aviation reports: Europe to India aviation: IndiGo could help to unlock vast potential and UK-India aviation - IndiGo's new growth stimulus: Heathrow is its second UK airport.

Norse Atlantic operates European destinations on IndiGo's behalf…

IndiGo's European routes are currently operated on its behalf under a damp lease agreement by Norse Atlantic, using Boeing 787-9 widebody aircraft.

It has 30 Airbus A350-900s on order, for delivery between 2027 and 2032, and plans to operate its own long haul routes when these aircraft have been acquired.

…but it will serve Athens with its own A321neo XLR aircraft

Athens is located in Europe's eastern flank, closer to India than IndiGo's existing European destinations. Rather than use Norse Atlantic widebodies, IndiGo plans to serve Athens with A321neo XLR equipment, mirroring Aegean's plans.

The first delivery of the variant to IndiGo is expected before the end of this year, in time to launch its flights to Greece in Jan-2026. The aircraft will have 195 seats, of which 183 will be in economy and 12 in its premium cabin, IndiGo Stretch.

The Aegean-IndiGo partnership makes sense for both

Aegean is a full service airline, but has a very competitive cost base with a unit cost (cost per ASK, or CASK) that is very similar to that of European LCCs. It is one of Europe's most profitable airlines by operating margin.

See related CAPA - Centre for Aviation reports: Aegean Airlines Group SWOT: strengths and opportunities to the fore and European airline margin rankings 2024: Pegasus and IAG at the top; outlook for 2025 favourable.

A focused narrowbody operator, Aegean is taking advantage of the extended range of Airbus' most modern A321neo variant to extend its network into new markets.

IndiGo is one of the world's fastest growing airlines and largest in India, an aviation market with huge untapped potential. It has reported two years of healthy profits since recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.

A low cost airline, it has pushed the traditional LCC model in a number of new directions. These include adding a business class product on some routes and codeshare partnerships with a number of global full service airlines.

It has also commenced long haul expansion with both narrowbody and widebody aircraft.

Aegean and IndiGo will be the sole operators between Athens and Delhi and Mumbai next year. It makes sense for both that these two successful airlines will be codeshare partners.