World’s cheapest flights: Air India, IndiGo grab spotlight; how other airlines from Jet to SpiceJet fare

World’s cheapest airlines: Even as the low-cost carriers IndiGo and Air India Express make it to the the top five cheapest airlines in the world in providing international connectivity, other Indian carriers Spicejet, Vistara, Go Air etc too find a mention in the domestic list. Most notably, Air India Express, the wholly-owned subsidiary of state-run carrier Air India has been ranked second and the budget carrier IndiGo placed at fifth position in a Global Flight Pricing Report prepared by Melbourne-based Rome2rio — a multimodal travel planning site.

Ranked in the order of having the cheapest US Dollar per kilometre, AirAsia X (US$0.07), Air India Express and Indonesia AirAsia (both US$0.08) formed the the top 3 in the list. Notably, within India, IndiGo Airlines, Air Asia and Go Air had a cost of $0.12 per km, followed by Vistara at $0.13 per km, Spicejet at $0.14 per km followed by Air India and Jet Airways at $0.15 per km.

In the global list, two other Indian carriers Jet Airways gained the 12th place followed by Air India at 13th position. Interestingly, Air India Express, mostly connecting Gulf countries and Singapore, has an average cost of USD 0.08 per km and IndiGo USD 0.10 per km. The latter connects Indian cities with Gulf countries besides Bangkok, Colombo and Kathmandu, said a PTI report.

AirAsia X at the top has an average of USD 0.07 per km. The data was analysed by taking into account the economy class airfares displayed by Rome2rio during the first two months of this year, totalling some 1.5 million price points, according to a press release. The outcome of the report was released last week. According to the report, four out of the top five cheapest airlines are in Asia.

Indonesia AirAsia and the Primera Air are the other two to have been put in the top five. Etihad, Ryanair, Qantas, Wow Air and Virgin Australia were among the top ten affordable airlines. Wow Air had recently announced to connect Delhi with Europe and US cities through its hub in Reykjavik in Iceland from December 7 onwards, with the base price starting at Rs 13,499. None of the airlines from the UK or US found a place among the top 10 affordable airlines in the report.

Air India