IndiGo, India’s largest airline by passengers carried, is planning to start regional operations by launching a separate subsidiary company.
Though IndiGo President Aditya Ghosh denied this when Firstpost sought his comments, highly placed official sources said IndiGo’s promoter Rahul Bhatia has conveyed as much to the Government. As of now, IndiGo operates 61 aircraft of the Airbus 320 family in a single class configuration, primarily deploying them on metro routes as a low cost carrier (LCC). There is no timeline yet for the subsidiary operations to begin but IndiGo is planning to place an order for up to 20 ATR aircraft in its bid to go regional.
And these plans would likely depend on the Government coming up with a new policy for regional connectivity, which is in the works. IndiGo’s thrust on regional operations could change the dynamic of domestic aviation. Six years ago, IndiGo was the newest kid on the block which began with a new fleet of the Airbus 320 family, offering low fares and on-time flights, fighting established competitors like Jet Airways, Kingfisher Airlines (which has been grounded since October 2012) and Air India.
12/03/12 Sindhu Bhattacharya/First Post
