Order is just a drop in the ocean: IndiGo

New Delhi: Evidence of the fabled Indian growth story can come in the strangest of ways to people willing to bet-and invest-on it. The recent instance of some airlines hiking fares to unprecedented levels during last Diwali season emerged as proof of the massive demand-supply gap in Indian skies.
So IndiGo, which had last summer got government nod to induct 150 aircraft, went ahead and ordered 180 brand new Airbus A-320s on Wednesday to be delivered between 2016 and 2025. "There is not enough supply and India requires more capacity. This was the rationale behind the order. Also, the 100 aircraft ordered in 2005 would join the fleet by 2015 and we needed to look beyond," IndiGo president Aditya Ghosh told TOI from Paris.
The airline chose an aircraft that promises unparalleled fuel efficiency (A-320 neo) so that it can continue to offer low fares. "There's no reason that people should find foreign travel unaffordable," Ghosh had recently said, while hinting that the airline will break that barrier when it starts international flights from August.
In fact, the airline is so bullish on India's potential and its growth story that it termed the record order for 180 planes in one go a "drop in the ocean". "We were not looking to make records or create them and based our order on estimated requirement. The fact that we did just that is an accident of history," he said even as IndiGo's first order for 100 A-320s in 2005 remains the highest-ever by a startup airline.
13/01/11 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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Categories: Foreign Jan 2011, Indigo Airlines Jan 2011