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The airline recently ordered wide-body planes, aims to operate non-stop overseas flights from Indian metros
India’s largest domestic airline IndiGo has set a clear target for itself with its first wide-body aircraft order that it placed recently. It wants to develop multiple hubs in the country, providing direct connectivity to faraway destinations from different metro cities with Airbus A350 and Airbus A321 XLR (extra long range) aircraft, set to join its fleet 2025 onwards.
The Airbus A321 XLR planes are expected to be used for non-stop, 7-8 hour flights to Europe and the Far East countries.
In a conference call on the induction of wide-body aircraft on Tuesday, IndiGo chief executive officer Pieter Elbers said that the airline sees potential of different strongholds across various parts of the country such as Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru, and given the country's geographical position, it is optimistic of seeing some overlapping as well as unique connections through different metro cities.
“There is a linear decline in market share of Indian carriers in international markets beyond 5-6 hours. Indian carriers are significantly underrepresented in wide-body, long-haul market. We should be able to compete with global aviation hubs,” Elbers said in a conference call with analysts and journalists.
On 25 April, IndiGo placed a firm order of 30 Airbus A350-900 aircraft that will help the low-cost airline offer non-stop flights to Europe, the UK, the US, and Australia from India. While the airline and the aircraft manufacturer did not share the cost of the acquisition, it is estimated to cost IndiGo over $9 billion, based on 2018 list prices. The European aircraft manufacturer has stopped publishing list prices of aircraft since 2019.
In addition to the firm or confirmed order of 30 A350-900 order, IndiGo has also secured purchase rights for an additional 70 Airbus A350 family aircraft. Currently, the airline operates low-frill flights with all-economy seats through a fleet of Airbus 320 aircraft, which can seat between 180 and 220 passengers. With this order, IndiGo will join the wide-body segment, which so far has only Air India and Vistara both Tata Group companies.
The airline reiterated that the decision to order 30 Airbus A350-900 aircraft was a conscious one after extensive evaluation, and it is also in line with the government’s ambition of creating global aviation hubs in the country.
“India is expected to become the world’s third-largest economy by 2027, the aspirations of Indian consumers are growing to travel, not only in the region but even further, and the growth of IndiGo as an airline has led to this deliberate decision,” Elbers said.
IndiGo aims to deploy 30% of seat capacity on international routes, from
INDIAN