Airline major IndiGo aims to increase international capacity to 30 per cent by the addition of new international destinations as well as the deployment of more aircraft to foreign stations.

Speaking to businessline, IndiGo’s Senior Vice President of Network Planning and Revenue Management, Abhijit Dasgupta, said that the airline will be constantly expanding capabilities in foreign markets. 

He said that international capacity as a share of the total ASKMs has grown to 28 per cent, and this share will continue to increase as new markets and more frequencies are added abroad. 

“This will further accelerate with the induction of the A321XLR and A350 fleet types in the future. This diversification helps balance the revenue streams, offsets fluctuations in the domestic market, and creates new types of traffic flows that feed across domestic and international networks,” he told businessline.

“International routes are not only growth drivers but also an important part of our profitability objectives. Recent growth into new geographies like the CIS region and Indonesia has demonstrated a clear trend of increasing appetite for international travel—driven by macroeconomic factors, availability of capacity, and appealing price points to a growing population of aspirational travellers.”

As part of network growth, Dasgupta cited that IndiGo has already announced Penang and Langkawi as new destinations, and by the end of this fiscal year, the airline will hope to have three additional overseas destinations added, taking the total international destination count to 40.

“At the same time, long-term profitability is driven by several structural factors, including cost efficiency, and we remain committed to delivering growth—both domestic and international—while keeping an unwavering focus on maintaining cost leadership, efficiency, reliability, and delivering a great customer experience,” he said.

According to Dasgupta, as income levels rise in India, increased capacity to many markets will enable price points that a very large population of aspiring travellers will be able to consume. 

“The success of our CIS expansion has reinforced our belief that these travellers are interested in increasingly diverse geographies. This travel desire is not only for leisure purposes but also for work, study, treatment, etc. We also believe that India has tremendous potential as a travel destination. Our large diaspora settled abroad is also increasing in size and affluence while maintaining strong links back home,” he cited.

“The country’s growing strength as an economic powerhouse, excellence in areas like medicine, and natural diversity in culture, climate, and cuisine are expected to drive strong growth in inbound travel across different travel segments. All these factors combined give us confidence to continue to push our international expansion to new geographies and new city pairs and deliver courteous and affordable travel options to create new passenger segments and strengthen our international footprint.”

In addition, Dasgupta pointed out that by anticipating the opening of additional airports, IndiGo is strategically planning for future expansion and proactively interacting with stakeholders to alleviate capacity concerns. 

“We understand that expansion is anticipated to occur at a rate that requires us to keep up with the development of infrastructure. A lot of work is being done to make sure that the infrastructure can handle these demands. The construction of new airports like Navi Mumbai and Noida marks a significant change in the aviation industry in India,” Dasgupta said.

“They are expected to reduce congestion at current hubs and greatly increase regional and global connections. These airports will enable us to expand our reach into important urban and suburban catchment regions and reach a new passenger base.”

Published on December 16, 2024