Bumper 2023: IndiGo becomes first Indian airline to carry over 100 million passengers in a year

Indigo

Budget airline Indigo became the first Indian carrier to fly 100 million passengers across its domestic and international network in a single calendar year after the airline carried 104,497,646 passengers in 2023.

Of the total passengers, 90,255,580 were domestic travellers and the rest 14,239,995 were global travellers, the airline said in a statement. Giving more details, the airline said that it flew 19,921,642 corporate clients while 8,44,87,776 were leisure travellers.

With the latest feat, the airline has now joined a select club of global carriers to fly 100 million passengers in a year and cemented its name in the 10 largest carriers list across the globe in terms of passenger traffic.

In 2022, IndiGo flew 78 million passengers across its domestic and international networks. The airline reported a 22 percent year-on-year (YoY) increase in passenger traffic for 2023.

Adding milestones

IndiGo also holds the distinction of being the first domestic airline to have over 2,000 daily flights across its network, which has 118 destinations, including 32 international ones.

In the past six months, IndiGo has significantly expanded its international presence by incorporating more than 20 additional routes into its network.

The airline’s commitment to enhancing domestic connectivity is evident, and it has ambitious plans for further growth.

The inclusion of popular destinations such as Bali, Indonesia, Medina and Saudi Arabia, in the upcoming months reflects IndiGo’s strategic approach to meet passenger demand.

Last year, in January, the airline recorded 2.48 lakh passengers per day on average, which included both domestic and international. This peaked at 2.95 lakh in June, which was a mix of peak season and the fall of Go First in May. November saw an average of 2.98 lakh daily passengers by the carrier. December became the first month in the history of the airline industry to cross the 3-lakh per day mark.

At the start of December, IndiGo was 62,37,870 passengers short of the magic figure of 100 million for this fiscal. At an average of 2.98 lakh passengers, the airline would have crossed that number on December 21 but it hit that mark three days earlier.

Passenger amenities

The airline's journey to carrying 100 million passengers hasn't been an easy one with passenger complaints and grievances surrounding the airline on nearly every step of the way.

At the moment IndiGo is struggling with a passenger complaint that a live worm was found in her sandwich on board the airline.

Dietician Khushboo Gupta on December 29 said that she had the “worst experience” on an Indigo flight after finding a live worm in her sandwich.

Gupta shared a video of the worm on Instagram as she slammed the low-cost airline for its deteriorating quality of food and service.

The Delhi-based dietician said she took an Indigo flight from the national capital to Mumbai on the morning of December 29. While booking the flight, she had added and paid for a veg sandwich that was duly served to her during the journey.

After taking a bite of the sandwich, however, Gupta was shocked to see a worm crawling on it. To make matters worse, the flight attendant had a very “casual” response when she requested that other passengers be informed of the incident so they could choose whether or not they wanted to eat their food.

The Food regulator Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has now inspected major flight kitchens across the country after the live worm incident.

Indigo, on its part, also undertook a thorough review of its catering partner's production and packaging processes.