Australia speaks with Air India, IndiGo to offer more direct flights to Sydney as travellers grow in high double-digits

With the number of Indian tourists to Australia growing in high double digits, Australian authorities are in talks with Air India and IndiGo to offer more direct flights from India to Sydney, a top Australian official said. 

“The Western Sydney International Airport, located in Westen part of Sydney has done trial runs with the first runway. It will be operational towards end 2026. Discussions are on with Air India and IndiGo to operate direct flights to this airport once they get new aircraft,” said Samar Chokshi, Country Manager-India, Destination NSW in an interview. 

“The location of the new airport is interesting because it is close to Parramatta where a lot of the Indian community stays. It is going to be very good for them when they travel to Sydney and New South Wales (NSW),” he added. 

“It is going to be NSW’s first ever 24-hour airport, so we would not have the issues of flights arriving late at night or early morning. Due to aviation rules flight operations are banned at the existing Sydney airport from 11 pm to 6 am every night,” he said. 

Currently, two direct flights operate between India and the Sydney airport. These include Air India operating a daily flight from New Delhi to Sydney using their Dreamliners and Qantas operating daily in the Bengaluru-Sydney sector using the A330-300s. 

So, with the new airport coming into operation in 2026 and when Air India and IndiGo commence their flights, the number of direct flights would be doubled from now. 

Besides the direct flights Indian travellers are flying to Sydney by Singapore Airlines,  Malaysia Airlines, Thai Airways, Cathay Pacific, Scoot, Vietnam Airlines, Vietjet and Sri Lankan Airlines which provide connectivity from multiple Indian cities to Sydney through one stopover. 

In the past few years there is a dramatic shift in which more people are seen booking the front section of the aircraft (first and business class) as against the earlier preferred economy class.

“So we see a dramatic shift and even the airline partners tell us it is a dramatic shift because they are investing a lot more in the front of the aircraft in the products and updating the products and experiences in the front and catering to Indian dietary needs,” he said. 

Recently Singapore Airlines changed the aircraft that they used to operate from Hyderabad to offer more business class seats. 

“Travellers are first booking business class and if it is not available then they are looking for others. It used to be the other way around earlier,” he said. 

“Travel has changed quite drastically and we see it not just in metro cities but even in tier two and tier three cities. They are rich, they have cash and they want to spend and they want to enjoy their travel,” he added. 

There has been also a marked change the way people have started looking at travel and the time they are spending, he pointed out.

From a 3 to 4 nights stay they are now staying for 7 to 8 nights and in expensive hotels and indulging in food and beverages and experiencing the locations rather than rushing for site seeing.

“Travel has become not a checkbox activity, it has become ‘I want to experience, I want to go deeper into the culture, I want an authentic experience, I want a natural experience’, and Sydney offers a wide range of experiences and natural environments,” he said. 

“Over the years we have seen a dramatic shift again where people are spending much more now. So if you tell people to spend thousand dollars a night on a hotel room, nobody flinches nowadays. Or spend 150 dollars on a meal, nobody questions it, so it has become quite normal,” he emphasised. 

“They are doing slower travel, booking more experiences, just sitting and enjoying the destination the way it is supposed to be enjoyed, rather than doing quickly and then go to the next destination,” he stated. 

“We [travel to Australia from India] are growing exponentially, we are growing in high double digits. We were the first market to recover from post-COVID. Indians were the largest, were the biggest market to travel immediately after the borders opened post-COVID,” he said. 

“If you look at the statistics going back to the previous statistics, we have already more than doubled and tripled our numbers and spend as well in a very short span of time,” he concluded.