New Delhi: IndiGo’s foray into wide-body aircraft with a recent order of 30 Airbus A350-900 aircraft puts the carrier on a path to become a global aviation player while establishing India as an international aviation hub, the carrier’s chief executive officer Pieter Elbers said Tuesday.
“As a next step in defining our future and on the path of becoming a global aviation player, we have entered into an agreement with Airbus to place an order for 30 A350-900 aircraft,” Elbers said during a conference call.
He added the airline has been strongly focused on “internationalisation” as it was leveraging its strong presence in the domestic market to expand in the international skies. “In the last 18 months only, we have come a long way as we added 7 new international destinations and have expanded our strategic partnerships,” he said.
Last week, IndiGo announced an agreement to place orders for 30 Airbus A350-900 aircraft, which will help the airline expand its international network to long-haul destinations.
The deliveries from this order will start 2027 onwards, and the exact configuration of the aircraft will be decided at a later stage. The airline also has purchase rights for an additional 70 Airbus A350 Family aircraft.
Asked about the rationale behind the purchase rights for 70 aircraft, Elbers said the order was in line with the IndiGo tradition of being bold but at the same time being mindful of having all optionalities of a future position.
“…The 30 planes give us size and the scale needed to start an operation like that and clearly the 70 purchase rights with all the optionalities we will have as Indigo are putting us actually in a very good position… We are entering into this phase which admittedly is new for us. We’re very confident in it but it’s new for us. So, we do it in a way which is sizable enough to make an impact and has the opportunity to scale up later when it’s successful,” he said.
On the long-haul operations in India, Elbers said the country only had around 70 wide-bodied aircraft and that Indian carriers were significantly underrepresented in the non-stop, long-haul international markets. “…our widebodies will offer non-stop connectivity from our large Indian airports to destinations all over the globe and be part of the government’s vision to make India a global aviation hub and powerhouse.”
Pointing out that IndiGo served 88 domestic destinations, he added that they have started to build India into a global aviation hub. “…one of the characteristics of an aviation hub is that you have both a very strong market itself. You’re sitting on a strong market, which IndiGo clearly does, and has the opportunity to start connecting and… We have some experiences with domestic connectivity and More recently, we started domestic to international connectivity and international to international connectivity,” Elbers said.
Elbers declined to comment on the potential routes and configuration for the A350s, but said the company was keeping all options open. “I didn’t make any specification or any clarification on what the exact product configuration would be. Our business model is evolving as per the needs of our customers, the market size, and the opportunities. And the India of today is not the same India as it was 10 years ago. And India 10 years from now will not be the same as India of today. We keep all options open and we keep evolving.”
The CEO added this order was a very natural step to take at this point and was not taken “lightly”, but a “deliberate decision”. It was driven by economic growth in the country, the growing aspirations of Indian consumers and the rise of IndiGo as an airline itself, he said.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
Also read: IndiGo enters wide-body space, places orders for 30 Airbus A350-900 aircraft