IndiGo has nearly 500 planes on order and expects delivery of around 40 aircrafts in 2023, its CEO, Peter Elbers, said. On the recent Air India order, he said that it shows that India is growing into an upcoming aviation giant.
"IndiGo has never ruled out any option. We do have a significant order book. We have almost 500 aircraft on order... we have a steady stream of deliveries coming. Our focus and emphasis will be on that part. We do have the XLRs order that will further stretch the range of operations for IndiGo," he told PTI.
Elbers said that today India is underserved when it to comes to aviation and two out of five orders globally are by Indian carriers.
On fleet expansion, he said that they had placed the order already in 2019 and are seeing steady flow of deliveries.
Elbers also acknowledged the global supply chain challenges and listed out the steps IndiGo has taken to deal with it. It has extend existing leases, kept some of the fleet, which was supposed to be returned, in operation and introduced wet leases.
To stay competitive, he outlined that the airline has taken initiatives to reinforce the strong points that made IndiGo a market leader.
He said currently IndiGo is flying 76 domestic destinations and 26 international and it expects to add 10-15 new destinations this year.
The carrier is looking to start flights to Nairobi, Jakarta and some central Asian destinations as the carrier focuses on internationalisation, according to its chief Pieter Elbers.
The budget airline carried 2.23 crore passengers in the December quarter and its domestic market share in 2022 stood at 56.1 per cent.
For the three months ended December 2022, IndiGo reported a sharp rise in profit at Rs 1,422.6 crore and its highest-ever quarterly total income at Rs 15,410.2 crore as travel demand remained strong.
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