Photo by Steve Knight, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Competition is heating up on the India-Philippines air corridor, with IndiGo and Philippine Airlines both moving to enter a route currently served only by Air India.
IndiGo has applied to the Civil Aeronautics Board of the Philippines for permission to launch flights to Manila and Cebu, its first push into the Philippine market.
Philippine Airlines, meanwhile, is planning to start its own Delhi and Mumbai services during the winter schedule, invoking the bilateral Philippines-India Air Services Agreement.
Air India, currently the only carrier flying between the two capitals, is responding by upgrading its daily Delhi-Manila service to a 256-seat Boeing 787 Dreamliner from October 25, up from the 188-seat Airbus A321 in use now.
The route has grown steadily since its October 2025 launch, expanding from five weekly flights to a daily service amid load factors that have twice touched the low 80s, according to aviation analyst Ameya Joshi.
Indian arrivals in the Philippines climbed 43% year-on-year in the first half of 2026, with visa-free entry for Indian travellers cited as a key factor behind the growth.
Philippine Airlines is separately planning to launch its own services to Delhi and Mumbai during the winter schedule, basing its request on the bilateral Philippines-India Air Services Agreement.
That agreement permits up to 28 weekly flights between Manila and three other Philippine cities and the Indian metros of New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, leaving room for further expansion by carriers on both sides.
Indian arrivals in the Philippines rose 43% year-on-year in the first half of 2026, with more than 60,000 Indian travellers visiting the country in that period alone.
Visa-free access for Indian passport holders travelling to the Philippines has been cited by industry watchers as a key driver behind the surge in leisure and business travel between the two countries.
Photo by Steve Knight, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
