"India is in a hurry and so is IndiGo..."

IndiGo, India's largest low cost carrier recently hosted the 81st IATA AGM in Delhi.

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The opportune moment was also used by the airlines to share its ambitious expansion plan to the global media. At the pre-event media briefing, Mr. Peter Elbers, CEO, IndiGo in an open house interaction answered various questions which explained the vision and long terms plans for its future operations. Vishal Kashyap, Managing Editor, Aviation World was also part of the media briefings and based on the open house discussion he compiled the key interactive points for the reader's. Excerpts...

Media: Recently, IndiGo has recently stepped into setting up MRO facility in Bengaluru. Also, it has committed to replace 10% of ATF by SAF by 2030. So could you highlight a bit more on these developments?

Peter Elbers: If you look to the aviation ecosystem in India, compared to where Indian aviation is going, a lot of that work on the MRO side is being done basically outside India. I think the opportunity is in India itself, with the young & highly skilled population and limited facilities really when it comes to the MRO. The opportunity really is out there and one need to start building it and in the model which IndiGo had years ago, six year leases and then planes were returned, is also changing. We keep planes longer as we get quite a lot of aircraft coming in.

The opportunity here to start really building our own MRO infrastructure is a fantastic opportunity and we take some help from people with experience who did that in the past. In Bangalore, we have taken 30 acres of land for the same purpose but it will take time to be developed. It's really an important part of the journey we're doing and aligns with Indian government vision to build up our own capabilities and our own resources here in India itself.