IndiGo, India’s largest carrier by fleet and domestic market share, has been propelled to the seventh spot worldwide by capacity according to the latest rankings from OAG. The airline wouldn’t have expected to be as big just yet, had it not been for COVID-19. The last year or two has seen IndiGo expand on international routes in a manner that no other airline from India has before.
As the airline declared a loss last week, the CEO was as candid as ever to explain that profitability would return when the airline scaled up to 100 percent of its capacity on the domestic front and was able to start international services.
IndiGo has 332 A320neo on order while the order for A321neo stands at 398 aircraft. Only 30 of the A321neos have been delivered. With capacity restrictions in place in terms of departures, the airline has been extensively deploying its A321neos and opting to bench the A320neo. Not only do they provide capacity, they also provide the long legs to offer charter flights to places — where the airline has not flown in the past — either as scheduled or as charter.
While the airline is in focus globally to have climbed the ranks in top airlines by capacity and for having accepted deliveries of the maximum number of A320 family aircraft in 2020, the next frontier is international. IndiGo has held slots at London Heathrow — the most coveted airport to operate in the world due to its slot restrictions — but has shied away from flying there due to prohibitive costs to induct a widebody and question marks over sustainability of widebody operations.
31/01/21 Ameya Joshi/Moneycontrol
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