Rahul Bhatia: charting Indigo's rapid ascent

Rahul Bhatia is no stranger to the airline business but his June 2005 order for 100 Airbus A320s for an airline no one had heard of certainly raised a lot of eyebrows. Exactly two years later Bhatia’s low-cost Indian airline, Indigo, is exactly where he said it would be and Bhatia has every intention of taking all 100 A320s he ordered despite fierce competition in India.
Indigo launched domestic services last August and now operates 10 of the 100 A320s it ordered at the Paris Air Show two years ago. There has been a lot of speculation in recent months that Indigo may defer some of its deliveries or sell some of its A320 slots because of stiff losses. But Bhatia, while acknowledging the carrier is unprofitable, says it will continue to take a new A320 every five weeks and operate 18 A320s by March 2008.
“We’ve made a conscious decision to bear the short-term pain for long-term gain,” explains Bhatia, adding Indigo’s original business did not envision profitability until the fiscal year ending March 2009. “I think consolidation will help matters,” he says.
Bhatia expects there will be more consolidation in the dynamic Indian market but insists Indigo has no plans to acquire or be sold to another Indian carrier.
Bhatia says Indigo also has no plans to launch international services should the current ban prohibiting carriers that are less than five years old from operating international services be lifted.
27/06/07 Brendan Sobie/Flight International

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Categories: Indigo Airlines Jun 2007