IndiGo, Air India Express among top 5 cheapest airlines in the world

NEW DELHI: Low-cost carriers IndiGo and Air India Express have been ranked among the top five cheapest airlines in the world in providing international connectivity.

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. 

Two other Indian carriers also figured in the list. Jet Airways gained the 12th place followed by Air India at 13th position.

The report compared 200 major airlines across continents by the average price per kilometer with Air Asia X taking the pole position.

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. 

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. The outcome of the report was released this month.

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.