(This story originally appeared in on Sep 02, 2017)

MUMBAI: Long haul, low cost—the air travel game changer that has mainstreamed in Europe, the US, Southeast Asia and Australia is likely to debut in India in a year. These flights would not just be offered by Indian low-cost carriers (LCC), but also a couple of foreign airlines. If Indian LCCs SpiceJet and IndiGo delay launching long-haul international flights, Singapore Airlines ' low-cost subsidiary, Scoot , might steal a march over them as it has a privilege that allows it to operate direct flights between India and Europe.Called the "fifth freedom" rights, these permit a carrier to operate direct flights between two foreign countries. "Since we have fifth freedom, we can operate direct flights from Mumbai , Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata to destinations like Copenhagen, Vienna, Cairo and Manchester," Bharath Mahadevan, head of Scoot in India, told TOI.Scoot's lowest fare bucket for a one-way trip on, say, the Mumbai-Copenhagen route would be between Rs 12,000 and Rs 13,000, which includes the cost of a 20kg check-in bag and a meal. "A return trip to Europe would cost around Rs 26,000," said Mahadevan. Currently, the lowest fares on direct flights between India and Europe start at around Rs 45,000. Cheaper fares would be available on transit flights that halt in the Middle East.Unlike Scoot, Indian LCCs such as SpiceJet and IndiGo are likely to launch their first European long-haul flight to London-Gatwick (Scoot will steer clear of London so as not to eat into the market of its parent, Singapore Airlines). Another foreign LCC that has been eyeing the Indian market is Norwegian Air. Norwegian rewrote the LCC pricing rules early this year when it offered a deal that had return fares on the Los Angeles-Copenhagen route starting at Rs 19,000 or Rs 22,000 on the New York-Oslo route. On Saturday, a last-minute, all-inclusive, one-way fare on the 10-hour New York-Oslo route for travel on September 3, was available for Rs 20,000 on Norwegian.The airline also had the most aggressive and inconceivable expansion this summer with 20 long-haul, low-cost routes launched in a period of just four months starting June. Though it announced plans to launch flights to India in 2015, there have been no developments so far.These illogically cheap fares brought on by the advent of long-haul, low-cost flights have been changing travel plans across the world and the increasing demand is being met with increasing supply. "The long-haul, low-cost sector has just surpassed 5,00,000 weekly seats (globally) for the first time," said a Centre for Asia Pacific (CAPA) May-June 2017 report.This May, British Airways-Iberia combine's International Airlines Group (IAG) launched Level, the fifteenth long-haul, low-cost operation to be launched within the past five years. The only two such carriers launched before that included Australian airline Qantas' pioneering Jetstar in 2006 followed a year later by Air Asia X, currently the largest in terms of seats flown with 1.3 lakh weekly seats operated to 21 destinations worldwide. IAG became the seventh full-service airline group with a long-haul, low-cost operation. The others include Air Canada, Hainan Airlines, Korean Air, Lufthansa, Qantas and Singapore Airlines. "Air France-KLM is aiming to launch a long-haul, low-cost airline by the end of 2017 and several other major European airline groups, including Turkish Airlines, have said long-haul, low-cost projects are being studied," it added.And India would be a big market for these carriers. "We can see long-haul, low-cost operations gaining ground from next fiscal with Indian LCCs driving growth," said Kapil Kaul of CAPA adding that it's possible to create a new market segment which could be significantly bigger but ensuring long term viability is critical.IndiGo and Spice Jet, which has ordered 142 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft that can operate long-haul flights, spokespersons said they had no immediate plans to launch. But industry insiders say, the two rivals are keeping their cards close to the chest.Scoot, which launched flights between Singapore and India a year ago, currently operates to Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and five non-metros. "Mumbai and Delhi would be our top priorities once the new bilaterals are signed," he said. Bilaterals, the air transport agreement between two countries (India and Singapore, in this case), limit the number of number of flights, seats and destinations that carriers from the countries can operate into each other's territory. The last bilaterals was signed in 2013 and so the next could be expected to be signed within a year.But irrespective of which carrier launches first, long haul low cost is a term that is all set to gain currency in the Indian airline industry in the months to come.