The Hindu Business Line : IndiGo to add more stations next year: COO

The low-cost airline IndiGo plans to add five-to-nine new stations to its existing network of 13 stations in 2007, the Chief Operating Officer, Mr Steve Harfst, has said.

"We will look to add frequency to select markets instead of just focussing on opening new sectors during 2007 when more of the purchased aircraft are scheduled to join our fleet. We have been very satisfied with our experience during the first six months of operations. There have been no unexpected surprises and we have met the targets set. The airline is looking for similar results during 2007," Mr Harfst told Business Line. The airline started revenue flights in early August this year.

Fleet

The airline, which has already announced its decision to acquire 100 Airbus aircraft, currently has a fleet of six Airbus A-320 aircraft. Officials were, however, unwilling to name just yet the new cities to which the airline would operate flights during 2007.

"We have a five-year business plan which is being firmly implemented. There are a number of cities that we plan to operate flights. However, the market is dynamic and all airlines have to adjust their plans about cities to which they should launch new flights and to which they should expand capacity," a senior official said.

Asked on the airlines preparedness to operate in foggy weather conditions, Mr Harfst said that about 40 per cent of the airline's pilots were trained to operate in low visibility conditions.

"We expect some more pilots to be ready for fog flying in the coming days that should also help us and the passengers," airline officials said. The entire fleet of the airline is equipped with CAT-III equipment and CAT-III training is part the airlines standard training for pilots, official added.