A near one-horse race in domestic skies

India’s largest carrier faces its biggest operational turbulence yet after a week marred by mass flight cancellations

- SURAJEET DAS GUPTA

IndiGo’s stranglehold on the domestic skies, with a 65.6 percent share in October, is a rarity in the global aviation sweepstakes. Airlines in key markets like the US, China, the UK, Brazil, Japan, Thailand and France do not have a single player that matches its domination in what is now the third-largest aviation market in the world.

Not only that, India’s duopoly in the domestic skies — where IndiGo and Air India collectively control over 90 percent of the market — is highly skewed, leaving very little room for new players compared to most other countries, with the exception of Australia (where Qantas and Virgin control 98 per cent), leading to regulatory and anti-competitive challenges.