IndiGo’s global outreach based on network, route and partnership expansion: CEO Pieter Elbers

India’s largest and the world’s seventh-largest airline by departures, IndiGo is expanding its global footprint by expanding its network, route and code-share partnerships, Pieter Elbers, CEO of the Gurugram-based low-cost carrier (LCC), has said.

“We have developed a strategy for internationalisation comprising three important elements. The first element is to build our own network,” Elbers told media persons on the sidelines of the 50th National Convention of the federation of the country’s largest management association, the All India Management Association (AIMA), in New Delhi, Tuesday.

The past few months have seen the LCC aggressively adding new destinations such as Nairobi, Almaty, Tashkent and Tbilisi to its international network as part of its plan to have flights operating to different international destinations from various cities in the country.

“The second pillar is about developing new routes such as the recently added Bhubaneshwar-Singapore, Ahmedabad-Abu Dhabi, Ahmedabad-Jeddah and Goa-Abu Dhabi to expand our [global] footprint.”

Elbers was quick to point out that the opportunity India provided for the air travel industry’s growth allowed the airline to operate from multiple hubs.

“Where I come from (The Netherlands), we have one hub [Schiphol near Amsterdam] and where I am today [India], we have six metros! If Singapore Airlines can fly to so many cities from Singapore, why can’t we fly to Singapore from several Indian cities,” he asked rhetorically.

Elbers said the third pillar was about enriching their partnerships through code-share agreements with more global carriers.

“We are still at an early stage here… Last week we added British Airways as our eighth [code-share] partner.”

He said the code-share agreements were preparing them for the next round of expansion, which would commence with Airbus’ extra-long-range performance, A321XLR, joining the carrier’s fleet by 2025. That would allow IndiGo to also start servicing destinations such as Athens and Seoul.

India-Middle East-Europe Corridor good news for travel

Terming the New Delhi G20 meeting a huge success for India, he said the recently announced India-Middle East-Europe Corridor would help position the country from different perspectives.

“What it [the corridor] will do is strengthen India’s position on the world stage. This will help create new investment opportunities in India as well as enable more Indian companies to go abroad. At the end of the day, that will mean more travel,” observed Elbers in response to a question from Business Today.

Launched in 2006, IndiGo has grown into India’s largest airline today. In the month of August, the airline reported a market share of 63.3 per cent and carried over 7.8 million passengers, per data from the aviation regulator the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

On June 19, IndiGo placed a firm order for 500 aircraft of the Airbus 320 family, the single largest purchase agreement in the history of commercial aviation in recent times.

The announcement came within five months of national flag carrier Air India announcing its mega-order for 470 aircraft, to further reinforce India’s position as the next big growth centre for the global aviation industry.

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