Airlines increase flights to Prayagraj & Varanasi amidst rising travel demand for Maha Kumbh, ET TravelWorld

In response to surging demand during Maha Kumbh Mela 2025, Air India and Air India Express have announced expanded operations to Prayagraj and Varanasi, strengthening connectivity for pilgrims and travellers attending the world’s largest spiritual gathering.

Effective February 1, 2025, Air India will introduce a second daily service between Delhi and Prayagraj, operating until February 28, 2025. Additionally, the airline has launched daily flights between Mumbai and Prayagraj, which commenced on January 28, 2025, and will run through February 28, 2025. With these additions, Air India will operate 21 weekly flights to Prayagraj, ensuring seamless connections to domestic and international destinations via Delhi.

Bookings for these flights are now open through Air India’s website, mobile app, and travel agents.

Air India Express is also expanding its network to Varanasi, a key gateway to Maha Kumbh. The airline will launch daily direct flights between Delhi and Varanasi from February 5, 2025. In addition, flights on the Bengaluru-Varanasi route will increase from three to four per day, while Hyderabad-Varanasi will see 30 additional flights in February and March to accommodate increased demand.

Ankur Garg, Chief Commercial Officer, Air India Express, highlighted the importance of Varanasi in the airline’s network: “Varanasi, a revered cultural hub and the gateway to Maha Kumbh, is central to our expansion plans. With these additions, we now operate 48 weekly flights from Varanasi, offering direct connectivity to Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, and Mumbai, along with convenient one-stop access to 19 other domestic and international destinations.”

IndiGo has also increased the capacity of seats and flights to/from Prayagraj significantly during MahaKumbh. Initially, IndiGo had already planned a significant capacity increase, however given the unprecedented demand for air travel on Prayagraj route, more flights have been added recently. For this special period, the airline will now operate more than 165,000 seats to/from Prayagraj, that is more than double its normal capacity to the airport.During this period, IndiGo will connect Prayagraj to 10 locations in India, adding connectivity from Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Jaipur, over and above existing connectivity from Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Raipur and Bhubaneswar. Additionally, the airline has also increased capacity deployed on existing routes to/from Prayagraj through the addition of frequency and operations of A321, its larger aircraft. Overall, the airline will operate around 900 flights to/from the city, up from 490 regular services.