IndiGo, India's low cost with business class and 880 aircraft ordered

A low cost airline with the ambition of resembling a full service company with business class, passenger loyalty programmes, cargo service, and from July long-haul connections to Europe and from there to the United States. IndiGo, the Indian airline that has managed to conquer 64% of the domestic market in just a few years, has set itself a mission: to make air transport in the country, which is already growing at a rate of 130% of passengers a year, the flywheel of India's economy. Leading this transformation for the past three years has been a European, Pieter Elbers, former number one of the Dutch company KLM, who has made this mission his reason for living: "We must transform India into a global aviation market and include IndiGo in this journey," he said at a press briefing on the occasion of the Iata annual assembly in New Delhi.

The flying Dutchman, who moved to New Dehli not only as a professional choice after a career that also spanned Italy where he briefly headed the partnership between Air France-KLM and Alitalia before the divorce, has now chosen to stay and integrate with Indian society, dressing like them and thinking like them, with a holistic approach that seems to work: 'If you dare and make an effort you are reciprocated and India has been very kind to me in reciprocating the hospitality.

A commitment that sees it at the forefront of the challenge to internationalise the carrier, with numbers comparable to those of a major European airline: 118 million passengers, 2300 flights a day. 132 destinations (91 domestic and 41 international), a fleet of 430 aircraft and an expected turnover in 2025 of 10 billion dollars. Numbers destined to grow with 10 new international routes by 2026: 4 in Central Asia, Cambodia, 5 in Europe - Amsterdam and Manchester already this year, London and Athens next year. In Italy the carrier has no direct flights, but in code share with Turkish Airlines.

Ambitions that grow year after year for this low-cost ffounded in 2005 by private Indian entrepreneurs and 51% controlled by Rakesh Gangwal's InterGlobe Enterprises, former CEO of US Airlines and former chair of the board of American Southwest Airlines. Listed on the New Dehli Stock Exchange since 2015, the stock has gained 357 per cent since the Covid crisis. In the Middle East, Africa, Indonesia, Central Asia, and Europe, the map of expansion plans becomes more crowded every day as we wait for the arrival of the 880 long- and medium-haul aircraft of the Airbus family, ordered from the Toulouse-based manufacturer: 'By the end of the year, the first Airbus 321XLR will be delivered, which will be used on routes up to 7-8 hours flight time, and therefore in Europe as far as Athens, with a configuration of 195 seats, 12 of which are business,' explained the CEO. We are not a typical low cost, we are a hybrid while maintaining competitive low cost ticket prices and costs'.

Then it will be the turn of the long-haul aircraft in the A350 version also with a business configuration to destinations such as London, Manchester and Amsterdam: the first flights starting in July will be with the B787 Dreamliner of the Norwegian low-cost company Norce Atlantic, which will deliver six wet-lease aircraft by the end of the year. IndiGo has another two wet-lease Boeing 777 aircraft with Turkish Airlines for flights to Istanbul.