Four To 1000

That’s the story of India’s world-class airline. From 2006, when the airline had one aircraft that flew four flights a day to today with 150 planes making 1000 flights a day, IndiGo’s journey has been one of focus and commitment, writes SHAKTI LUMBA, one of the insiders who has witnessed aviation history in the making.

- Shakti Lumba

My journey started with IndiGo in September 2005 when I joined the start-up team as Chief of Operations. The popular buzz at that time was IndiGo’s epochal order of one hundred A320 aircraft, made at the Paris Air Show that year. The skeptics and media had deemed this a publicity stunt as this order was almost equal to the quantity of operational commercial aircraft that were flying at the time. It was the largest single aircraft order after the 9/11 aviation slump.

Following such an investment, many asked, “But where will they park them? Where will they operate to? Surely the aircraft must really be for the leasing business.” As a mark of such international success, IndiGo went on to order 450 more A320s and 50 ATRs as an established Airline and no eyebrows were raised. IndiGo’s extreme efficiency allowed for low-cost airfares and accelerated consumer demand. Success is a wonderful thing.

From September ’05 till July ’06, the foundation was laid for the great and profitable airline that IndiGo is today. The journey from August 4, ’06 where we had one aircraft making four flights a day to carry approximately 500, to today where IndiGo boasts an impressive army of 150 aircraft making 1000 flights per day averaging a load factor of +90 percent and about 162,000 passengers a day domestically is one that speaks of commitment. The carrier just crossed the 2-million passenger carriage mark. They have been profitable for the last years straight. Indeed, its growth has been mind boggling, as its profits. Everyone had deemed these impossible in an industry where making losses had been the norm due to wafer-thin margins.