INDIGO'S GLOBAL FLIGHT PATH

TO REALISE CEO PIETER ELBERS' AMBITION OF MAKING INDIGO A GLOBAL AIRLINE BY 2030, IT WILL HAVE TO TAKE ON THE LEADER, AIR INDIA. WILL THE PLAN FLY?

- BY RICHA SHARMA

INDIGO MADE HISTORY in the week starting April 7 by momentarily surpassing global giants Delta Air Lines and Ryanair to become the world's most valued airline. This capped a series of headline-grabbing moves over the years since it took to the skies. The most significant was in mid-2023 when it announced non-stop flights to four Central Asian cities, not usual travel destinations for Indians and not connected by an Indian carrier till then. Within months, these destinations recorded triple-digit growth in the number of Indian visitors.

To meet the growing demand, IndiGo had to prioritise fleet allocation to Baku, Azerbaijan; Almaty, Kazakhstan; Tbilisi, Georgia; and Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Baku registered 283% traffic growth from India in January-September 2024 compared to the same period in 2023. It was followed by Almaty (172%), Tbilisi (147%) and Tashkent (90%).

Bolstered by the response, IndiGo talked about starting direct flights to international cities not served by a domestic carrier and announced in earlier this year that it would connect four new destinations: Krabi, Thailand; Manchester, UK; Seychelles; and Fujairah, UAE. In fact, even global carriers do not fly directly between Delhi and Manchester, IndiGo's second European destination after the Netherlands. With leased widebody aircraft, it is set to announce 10 new international destinations this year.

Indeed, after capturing 60%-plus domestic market share, IndiGo has set its sights on dominating the global skies too, including mid- and long-haul markets such as northern Europe, the US, Canada, Australia and Japan. Air India is the only domestic airline that connects these countries. This sets the stage for an epic battle between Air India, which has a monopoly on long-haul routes, and IndiGo.