IndiGo is gearing up to compete with Air India after its massive aircraft order announcement. In FY24, IndiGo expects to get deliveries of approximately 50 aircraft and expanding its domestic and international network by taking the total number of destinations to 115 from 104 at present, said IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers.
Elbers said the order is a “good health check-up” for the Indian aviation industry’s growth potential.
Read also: Why is the Air India order such a big deal?
IndiGo has an order book of 500 jets, which are scheduled to be delivered by 2029. He said, “Today, with the order book of Air India, and IndiGo’s 500 aircraft order backlog, two Indian carriers are ranked in the 10 top ten for aircraft orders for sure.”
In FY24, he said, “We expect to get approximately 50 aircraft. Owing to the supply chain crunch, we are also evaluating negotiations on our lease agreements.” After FY25, IndiGo expects to get a “stable influx of aircraft deliveries.”
Also read: IndiGo eyes expansion of international ops, eyes new routes
Elbers said given the current growth trajectory, he is positive that FY24 too will be a robust year. On the network front, IndiGo operates 78 domestic and 26 international destinations. It plans to take this number to 115 destinations. Given the current growth trajectory, he said, by the end of this fiscal, IndiGo would have carried 80 million passengers. For FY24, he expects this number to go up to 100 million.
New destinations
Though he did not give a division of domestic versus international destination additions, he said the company does plan to expand internationally, and that is one of its goals. During the earnings call, Elbers had said that it planned to add Nairobi and Jakarta to its list along with destinations in China once the markets open up.
“On international side, there is a lot of expansion scope for Indian carriers and at least two or more than two carriers can continue to exist. To IndiGo’s benefit, we have a strong hold in the domestic market, which gives us an edge. While we want to add more destinations, we want to connect our existing international destinations to more Indian cities.”