UK’s New Budget Airline Banking On Indian VFR Explosion To Kick-Start Business

The founder of a new UK budget airline set to launch later this year says he has cracked the long-haul low-cost model, a concept he believes can thrive in the post-pandemic Indian and South Asian markets if angled correctly.

Nino Singh Judge, founder and CEO of flypop, plans to launch flights from London’s Stansted Airport to Amritsar and Ahmedabad when border restrictions ease and demand for travel between the UK and India picks up.

“As far as I’m concerned, there’s never been a better time to start an airline with the overhead costs being so low,” Mr Judge told Aviation Business. “I’ve just got to make sure it’s ready to capture any pent up demand. It’s a good problem because there are incoming phone calls from suppliers offering 50% discounts on everything. So I pick and choose how I launch and when I launch. I just have to be ready.”

Industry experts and airline bosses have hotly debated the viability of the long-haul low-cost model since its conception with few carriers able to make it work. European airline Norwegian, which recently withdrew from the long-haul market, is often used as evidence of why the model is unsustainable in the long-term.

But Mr Judge thinks that each carrier that has tried the concept before has been missing the mark. flypop will solely target the pent-up demand in the VFR (visiting friends and relatives) market, which is widely regarded as the sector most likely to recover from the COVID crisis first.

“Long-haul low-cost is dependent on filling your low-cost flights,” he said. “If you can’t fill them up, you’re making a loss. Norwegian had the right idea but unfortunately they weren’t catering for a segment that can fill their planes up all year round. That’s what we have with the South Asian diaspora that go back and forth to the second cities of India from New York, Toronto, the UK and parts of Europe.

“Everybody got some part of low-cost long-haul right, many have got 80 percent of it right, but with business, unless you get 100 percent right you’re going to struggle. With the flypop long-haul low-cost model, the winning ingredient is the target segment.”

flypop’s model will rely on direct routes between the UK and second cities in India, initially. British Airways and Air India are currently the main providers of direct services between the UK and India. Many passengers fly via hubs in the Gulf, such as Abu Dhabi.

But Mr Judge said the business will not take market share away from Gulf airlines connecting Britain and the Subcontinent.  

“It’s a huge market. Already 3.4 million Indians travel between the UK and India. I sincerely believe once we start flying to the second cities, it’s not taking market share away from anyone. It will stimulate at least 50 percent more demand from new customers.”

While the airline is set to launch in 2021, it will initially wet-lease aircraft. In effect therefore, flypop is currently more akin to a marketing company than an airline. But Mr Singh said he is already in negotiations with Boeing and Airbus for potential orders.

The airline said in a statement late last year that it has received “significant” investment from the UK Government.