‘IndiGo will offer fit-for-purpose products, value-for-money proposition to flyers’ | Business News

Around 65 per cent of the world’s population lives within the range of our current (narrow-body) fleet. So, when it comes to building the international network, the opportunity is enormous and we have indeed demonstrated that with Central Asia, and even Southeast Asia. The way I would like to see the network develop is by expanding our range step by step. You will continue to see a lot of new routes in, let me call it the region—Southeast Asia, Gulf, etc…We are expanding on the density of the regional network, and at the same time continuously expand the borders of that network and stretch the scope of where we fly…We recently announced 10 new international destinations. Apart from Manchester and Amsterdam, there will be London, Copenhagen, Athens, another four destinations in Central Asia, and one (Siem Reap) in Cambodia.

What role would your code share partners play in terms of giving you traffic and helping you build a global network?

I think partnerships, until a few years back, were very much foreign airlines flying to India and then putting their passengers on our enormous domestic network. I think we are now making it much more reciprocal. For example, KLM has 30 destinations in India connecting (via IndiGo) on their flight from some major Indian cities. Now, we’re going to have connections on KLM from Amsterdam, similarly we’ll have connections to Virgin’s network in Manchester. It’s surely going to help in the further development of IndiGo’s global network.

Traditionally, LCCs have done well on short-haul routes globally, but there are very few success stories in long-haul LCC operations. What is IndiGo doing differently to replicate its success on long-haul routes?

I don’t think one can label or classify our long-haul product as an LCC or a ULCC (ultra-LCC) product. We have hot meals and baggage included. So, it’s a ‘fit-for-purpose’ product and operation. For a nine or 10-hour flight, we choose to have food included, instead of going through all the complexities of selling it on demand on board. Does it mean that we have to do it across the domestic network, and for five- and six-hour flights? Not at all…I believe that IndiGo should be a fit-for-purpose airline. That means that these hundreds of routes we operate in the nation should have a very cost compelling basis, and with that, a very attractive price. But some of the other routes, like the nation’s busiest, might need something more, and that’s why we started with IndiGo Stretch (business class cabin) on some routes. And the same goes for these European flights. It’s fit for purpose and a value-for-money proposition. It’s going to be very competitive with some of the fares offered by our competitors.

Initially IndiGo was heavily focused on point-to-point (p-p) operations, but now you have a few large domestic airports as hubs. Will your international network be largely P-P, hub-and-spoke, or a hybrid of the two?

I would say the latter (hybrid). Clearly, Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, and Hyderabad are the key large cities we operate from, but we have great connectivity from Chennai as well, and we operate some international flights from other cities as well. For instance, we fly from Kannur into the Gulf. Are we channelling the Kannur-Gulf traffic through Mumbai? Probably not. So, perhaps I would answer it as being a hybrid (operation) with some large Indian cities as connection points, but also substantial point-to-point flights. The (Airbus) A321 XLRs (deliveries likely to start later this year) will also help with that.

What is the future of your codeshare with Turkish Airlines? Has there been any word from the regulator on that?

No. And if there is, we’ll follow the guidance. In terms of the scale of the Turkish codeshare, it has some 30 destinations in Europe, a few in the US, but with a limited number of flights (to Istanbul from India) at just two a day today—using the two wide bodies we have on damp lease. So, there’s also limit in that sense. Unless we get a different guidance from the regulator, there’s no need for us to review that (code share with Turkish Airlines), and we can just carry on with it. But in parallel, we’re developing new codeshare partnerships with Air France-KLM, Virgin, and Delta.

Has the recent Air India crash been a concern in terms of public perception, considering Boeing has been under the scanner for a few years and your long-haul operations are also on Boeing 787?

When it comes to aviation, it is important to focus purely on facts. That means I cannot answer your question, because first we need to have a clear understanding of what exactly happened. Today, we don’t know. There is a lot of speculation and by no means do I want to add anything to the speculations. The regulator gave an additional set of inspections to be done for different aircraft and different configurations. Obviously as IndiGo, being an Indian operator, we follow whatever guidance comes from the regulator. For now, that’s it.

How do you see the domestic market developing, as you already enjoy 65 per cent share in it?

One of the key metrics really is seats per capita, and points of comparison could be the US, Europe, or China and they’re all at a multiple (to India). So, there is a lot of potential for growth and it is a widely shared notion that India’s aviation market would double by 2030 from 2023 levels, which would mean a compounded average growth of 10-11 per cent a year. If you see what happened in other countries, that’s not an unrealistic number. At IndiGo, we’ve committed to double our fleet size in that same time frame. The long-term view on India’s aviation market is pretty robust. As for the high market share, I would say that market share is an outcome and not an objective for us…The underlying factors in India—being under-penetrated in air travel, an expanding middle class, growing GDP—will continue to be there going forward.

What is IndiGo’s strategy going to be for further developing its domestic network?

You could say we operate four types of services…one bucket is metro-to-metro, the second is the metro-to-non-metro. In the metro-to-metro segment, the growth will probably be somewhat slower than average as there are so many flights already. We have seen a lot of growth in metro-to-non-metro routes, and it has been a huge growth engine for us. The third one is non-metro to non-Metro, say Bhopal to Patna, and the fourth bucket are the regional flight routes. As a percentage (of operations), regional routes are relatively limited. We’ll continue to focus on those four areas going forward.

The government and Indian airlines want to develop India into a global aviation hub. What would you want from the government on that front—is it a simpler visa regime or schemes where flying on an Indian carrier would allow visa-free stopovers?

I would be very hesitant for regimes in terms of stopovers which are linked to Indian carriers specifically because I wouldn’t like to have that reciprocated in other parts of the world. I think aviation benefits from a level playing field. I think we can make the next steps in improving transfer facilities at airports. Some of the airports in the Middle East are equipped for massive transfer traffic with connecting flows, immigration, and all facilities adjusted for connecting passengers. I think that is where the next steps are to be taken. Many of the (Indian) airports were not, per se, designed for that role, so they need to be converted…When it comes to the smoothness of the (visa) process, I think there’s room for more. Some countries have explored the idea of transit visa, or stopover visa. Even though over time such initiatives may fade away, they could be a good way to give people a level of comfort in making a stopover in India.

On regional operations, your order of 50 ATR aircraft is now almost fully delivered. Are you looking at further expanding your regional aircraft fleet?

It’s a constant process of evaluation. Some of our ATR routes have grown into more mature markets and can operate with the A320s, which frees up ATRs for other routes…We are in the process of evaluating what could be that next step. IndiGo operates at 91 domestic airports, which will go up to 95 this year. And today, 90 per cent of the Indian population lives within 100 km of an IndiGo-served airport. I think the next step in Indian aviation development is not, per se, many more airports. It’s perhaps bigger, better, and smoother airports.