Four Indian airline carriers are amongst the top 15 world’s cheapest airlines worldwide

• According to the Global Flight Pricing Report, Air India Express and IndiGo rank in the top five cheapest airlines providing international connectivity.
  
• A whopping 24 of this year’s top 30 cheapest international airlines are based in Asia or the Middle East.
  
• India’s Jet Airways also made it to the list at 12th place, followed by Air India at 13th position.

Everyone loves a good bargain, especially when it comes to travel, and according to the Global Flight Pricing Report released by Rome2rio, a multimodal travel planning platform, India’s very own Air India Express and IndiGo rank in the top five cheapest airlines providing international connectivity.

While Air India Express bagged the second place, IndiGo was at the fifth position. Air India Express is a wholly-owned subsidiary of state-run carrier Air India and it mostly services the Gulf nations and Singapore. On the other hand, IndiGo Airlines, India’s largest passenger airline with a market share of 39.5%, caters to eight international destinations, including Nepal, Oman, Qatar, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and United Arab Emirates (Dubai and Sharjah), for now.

According to the report, a whopping 24 of this year’s top 30 cheapest international airlines are based in Asia or the Middle East with AirAsia X, Air India Express and Indonesia AirAsia forming the top three.

The third edition of the report analysed over 1.5 million economy-class prices from 200 airlines, finding the best value airlines for travellers. The data scientist team analysed economy-class airfares displayed by Rome2rio during the first two months of this year, totalling some 1.5 million price points, to provide a snapshot of global pricing (in US$ per km).

Based on this, Air India Express had an average cost of US$0.08 per km (0.6 miles) and IndiGo US$ 0.10 per km. India’s Jet Airways also made it to the list at 12th place, followed by Air India at 13th position.

Other carriers that made it to the top ten were Etihad, Ryanair, Qantas, Wow Air and Virgin Australia. Of these, Wow Air had recently announced its plan to enter India, initially connecting New Delhi to 15 North American cities and London via its hub in Reykjavik, Iceland from 7 December 2018 onwards, offering one-way fares as low as Rs 13,499.

While both Air India Express and IndiGo are facing troubles in their own stead — IndiGo has been facing numerous complaints about customer service and operations, and Air India Express’ parent company is having trouble finding buyers — perhaps this ranking will be a tiny shot in the arm for the carriers.