IndiGo is looking for a new formula that will allow it to induct wide-body aircraft, Ronojoy Dutta, the airline’s Chief Executive Officer, said at the company's 16thAnnual General Meeting here on Tuesday.

“We are investigating it thoroughly. We meet every Tuesday to talk about the wide-body. It is not an easy proposition. You do need a business class to make the wide-body work. We cannot copy anyone because no one has succeeded in terms of wide-body low cost. We have to do something different,” Dutta said. At the moment, IndiGo does not have wide-body aircraft and offers only economy class seating on all its aircraft.

Turning his attention to Extra Long Range (XLR) aircraft, the CEO said the airline is studying it carefully “in terms of how many do we need and when we need them”, adding that the XLR is a great aeroplane but it cannot reach London. “With the current range (of aircraft in our fleet), we cannot reach Seoul. With the XLR, we can reach Seoul,” he said.

Talking about the issue of Related Party Transactions (RPT) in the company which had been a point of dispute between its two co-promoters, Rakesh Gangwal and Rahul Bhatia, Dutta said that while the turnover of the company was around ₹30,000 crore, the total value of RPTs was less than 1 per cent. “In terms of size, it is very small,” Dutta said, adding that among the major ones are the corporate headquarters whose landlord is the Inter Globe Enterprises, which is promoted by Bhatia and his family.

“We pay them the market rate. This is close to the metro so many employees come by metro. I do not want to inconvenience about 2,000 employees,” Dutta said.

RPT issue

The CEO pointed out that in the 9 to 10 months, he had not found a single instance of RPT not being at arm’s length.

Dutta said that every RPT that the company was involved in was approved by its Audit Committee.

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