India’s leading airline IndiGo, which now flies to 11 GCC destinations including Doha with 386 weekly services, is committed to providing “on-time, hassle-free and affordable” travel experience to passengers, said CEO Pieter Elbers.
Speaking to media on the sidelines of IATA’s Annual General Meeting in Istanbul, Elbers said IndiGo now flies, besides Doha, to Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Dammam, Dubai, Jeddah, Kuwait, Ras Al Khaimah, Riyadh, Sharjah and Muscat.
As to why some of the high-demand routes like Thiruvananthapuram in South India had been dropped (from Doha) by IndiGo, Elbers told Gulf Times, “We try to optimise our schedules. And some of these routes and bilateral agreements are based on seat numbers. So, if you add a bigger aircraft in one route, you may have to drop another route. So, we are constantly optimising our network and making sure that we can meet demand in various areas. In the overall optimisation, we sometimes trade off a specific route versus large aircraft.”
Asked whether there are plans to add business class cabin in IndiGo, he said, “Today, we are happy with the product we have. We have on order Airbus A321XLRs (which are long range). The moment A321XLRs come in, we will be able to further expand our network. We will be able to fly further into Europe and other places in Asia.”
He also told Gulf Times that IndiGo has no “immediate plans” to join any airline alliance.
08/06/2023 Pratap John/Gulf Times
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