IndiGo said longer flight durations due to international airspace constraints, higher aviation turbine fuel prices and currency volatility have significantly increased costs. | Photo Credit: PTI

IndiGo on Tuesday announced discontinuing its flights to Manchester from August 31, less than a year after launching the services, amid escalating operational costs and airspace constraints.

The country's largest airline, which has significantly expanded its international operations, would also be returning one Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft leased from Norse Atlantic Airways following the decision to stop Manchester flights.

Currently, three weekly and four weekly services are operated to Manchester (UK) from Delhi and Mumbai, respectively. The flights were started in July 2025.

Once these flights are discontinued from August 31, there will be no direct air connectivity between Indian cities and Manchester.

In a statement, IndiGo said it would temporarily discontinue flights to and from Manchester from August 31 due to continuing international airspace constraints leading to significantly increased flight duration and a challenging cost environment.

The airline said it had damp leased six Dreamliner aircraft from Norse Atlantic Airways as part of efforts to make strategic inroads to establish the IndiGo brand in the European market, ahead of the commencement of services using its own Airbus A350 aircraft.

"However, the airline has since experienced a significant impact of prevailing industry-wide challenges, including geopolitical developments in the Middle East, rising aviation turbine fuel (ATF) costs, severe airspace constraints, and foreign exchange volatility resulting in operating costs being considerably higher than originally envisaged," it said.

Abhijit Dasgupta, Senior Vice President of Network Planning & Revenue Management at IndiGo, said these aircraft on a short-term basis to fast-track its connectivity to high potential long-haul destinations such as Manchester, and witnessed very encouraging demand response.

"It is, therefore, unfortunate that longer flying times due to airspace constraints coupled with dramatically escalating costs compelled us to take the decision to temporarily discontinue our India-Manchester services," he said.

IndiGo flies to more than 40 international destinations.

Meanwhile, the airline is cutting 12-15 per cent of domestic flights for the September quarter amid spiralling jet fuel prices due to the West Asia crisis and lower travel demand.

Published on June 2, 2026