Vayudoot, the defunct state-owned airline, tried to change the flying habit of Indians in 1990, but failed to do it. Twenty five years later, IndiGo, along with its full-service competitor Jet Airways, is trying again.

IndiGo, the country's largest airline by market share, will introduce late night flights from Delhi to Chennai, and Bengaluru from October 15. The next day, its Delhi-Mumbai connection starts flying, with the return flight leaving Mumbai at 2 am and landing at the Capital at 4.10 am. In April, Jet Airways had introduced such flights on three domestic sectors-- Mumbai-Delhi, Delhi-Kolkata and Delhi-Pune.

“IndiGo’s move to offer late night flights, popularly known as ‘Red Eyes’ in the West, is probably a response to similar plans by its rivals," says Dhiraj Mathur, Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers.

SpiceJet CCO Sanjiv Kapoor told BusinessLine that the airline will ‘soon’ announce plans for late night flights.

Timing comfort 

A senior management professional with a European firm says that night flights are a perfect way to finish a business meeting in cities such as Mumbai or Delhi where airports are far from the business centres.

“If you are say on a 9 pm flight from Mumbai you will want to leave the meeting by 5-5.30 pm so that you do not get caught in traffic and miss the flight. A 2 am departure means you can finish the meeting at leisure and probably also have an early dinner," says the professional, who didn’t want to be identified.

Amber Dubey, Partner and Head Aerospace, KPMG, says late night flights are a win-win for most stakeholders. "Express courier and cargo companies can charge a premium on 24-hour delivery despite late evening pickup of packets. Airports and cabs get added hours of business. Cockpit and cabin crew get an option of late start to the day - which can help them plan their other family obligations. Aircraft utilisation per day goes up and cost per seat goes down," says Dubey.

Pricing would be crucial. "Travellers will be ready to take on the inconvenience of landing at their destination in the middle of the night, if the fares are attractive and comparable or at a slight premium to other modes of travel," says Sharat Dhall, President, Yatra.com .

IndiGo’s Delhi-Mumbai flight is priced at ₹3,351, lower than the day fares that range from ₹4,936 to ₹6,336.

Past experience

Harsh Vardhan, Managing Director, Vayudoot had ensured that late night flights were cheaper. During his tenure the night flight to Mumbai from Delhi was available at ₹750 instead of ₹1,000 while the flight to Bengaluru was available for ₹950 instead of ₹1,300 charged on the day flights. Vayudoot had introduced the concept of late night flights in 1990.

"The Mumbai-Delhi flight was popular with film technicians. Some 30-40 would travel by the night flight and catch a connecting flight to say Srinagar. The movie stars would fly on one of the four daily flights that Indian Airlines operated," he recounts.

But his experiment lasted only for six months and the late night flights had to be dropped."There were issues with the Royal Nepal Airlines from which we were hiring the aircraft to operate these flights. Then I resigned from Vayudoot," says Vardhan who admits that the start of the flight was a desperate attempt to help generate some additional funds for the airline.

With a different scenario in the aviation market today, hopefully IndiGo and Jet Airways will fare better.

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