IndiGo comes of age
August 22, 2024
Indian operator IndiGo turned 18 recently and with coming of age, it is defining its own future on the path to becoming a global aviation player.
The airline currently operates a staggering 2,000 flights a day covering more than 110 domestic and international routes, and reportedly became the first Indian airline to carry 100 million passengers in 2023. The backbone of its operation remains domestic with a substantial market share of 61% as of May 2024. “We are well-positioned to capitalise on the industry’s rapid resurgence,” Abhijit DasGupta, senior vice president network planning and revenue management at IndiGo, told Aerospace Global News.
As local reports suggest, India’s domestic air travel market has been growing at rates faster than 15% per annum for over a decade. “We do not expect this rate to materially slow down over the next decade given how under-penetrated the air travel market continues to be,” he added. IndiGo recognises the potential for growth in the Indian aviation sector, particularly in attracting train travellers to upgrade to air travel, given that only 10% of the nation’s 1.47 billion population currently flies.
“We are committed to building robust domestic and international connectivity and providing increased accessibility to air travel at affordable fares,” stated DasGupta, who reckons India’s domestic market is still on a high growth trajectory. “As the country grows, we have witnessed increasing dispersion of economic activity and wealth creation,” he observed. “This will continue to drive new market growth and evolving trends of demand in various subsegments of travel needs.”
To cater to this demand, IndiGo is growing the network across the country and continues to invest in building new stations, new city pairs and increased depth in its existing network proposition. Inside the cabin, the airline recently recorded a milestone with the introduction of business class seats on the A321neos – for the first time. RECARO Aircraft Seating is supplying the airline with 45 shipsets of its R5 seats to meet this upgrade. Each A321neo is configured with 12 business class seats and 208 in economy. All business class installations are expected to be completed by the end of next year.
Elsewhere in the cabin, IndiGo is introducing next-gen Electronic Flight Bags (EFBs) and equipping its ATR pilots with individual 9th generation iPad devices. The initiative aims to reinforce the advancement in digitisation and enhanced operational efficiency in the cockpit. IndiGo first introduced EFBs on its ATR fleet in 2020 and since then, it has reported significant improvements in operational efficiency and a reduction of 15kg of paper from each ATR cockpit, contributing to a smaller carbon footprint.
International ambitions
There is clear ambition to boost the airline’s international presence. In August 2024, IndiGo announced the launch of daily direct Coimbatore-Singapore flights, from October and additional frequencies between Chennai to Singapore and Colombo and Mumbai-Kuwait. Over the past year, IndiGo has also built-up Hyderabad in South India as a regional hub with services connecting Southeast Asia. To this end, direct flight were launched to Bangkok, Male, Ras Al Khaimah, Singapore, and Colombo.
“India’s international air travel market has reached an inflection point, where substantial appetite to travel abroad is being matched by price points that are affordable to a very large population of consumers,” DasGupta informed. Additionally, he believes India’s inbound tourism market represents massive untapped potential as the country’s geographic, climatic and cultural diversity is expected to trigger significant growth over the years as visa norms evolve and tourism infrastructure makes affordable capacity available.
It is not surprising that IndiGo has set a path for international growth considering the direction the Indian aviation sector is heading. For instance, the rebranding and overhaul of Air India and its merger with Vistara is seen by many analysts as the first step in reviving India’s reputation in the global market.
DasGupta is also keen to see more connectivity due to India’s geographic location as a connecting point from Europe, Middle East and Africa to East/Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent and Asia Pacific. With plenty of development happening at airports across India, these airports could play an increasing role as connecting hubs, to siphon connecting traffic flows over these hubs into domestic India and across the network.
Rightsizing the fleet
IndiGo is embarking on an ambitious fleet expansion plan and aiming to increase its fleet size from around 350 aircraft currently to between 550 and 600 by 2030, noting the historic 500 A320 family order last year. “We strongly believe in the growth potential of our marketplace and our fleet order represents not only an alignment of our capacity delivery plans to this growth potential,” stated DasGupta. Additionally, this places the airline in a position to properly plan and chart out resourcing and infrastructure plans to ensure the most efficient path forward to achieve these goals in a profitable manner, he added.
In May, IndiGo placed an order for 30 A350-900s, thus confirming its long-haul ambitions and marking an important element in its expansion. DasGupta is coy on discussing route specifics but says the A350’s capabilities will enable the airline to extend the range of its fleet to establish long haul links to various global locations. He further explained that the actual deployed network will evolve over a period of time along with changing demand characteristics, infrastructure evolution, bilateral enablers and industry capacity characteristics.
“While our routes and destinations will get announced over a period of time, we strongly believe that IndiGo’s strength in depth and breadth at all major Indian cities allows for multiple deployment solutions to tap into local and connecting traffic flows in an efficient manner,” DasGupta continued.
Meanwhile, IndiGo expects deliveries of its first A321 XLRs from the second half of next year. The long range narrowbodies will operate on routes ranging from six hours to eight or nine hours, potentially allowing the airline to explore opportunities in Europe, Africa and East Asia. “This capability brings a large pool of destinations with potential for direct connectivity to India,” concluded DasGupta. Currently, specific route information is unavailable, but the airline suggests that operations will not be limited to new destinations, but also connectivity on existing longer range routes currently in IndiGo’s network.
