IndiGo, India’s largest low cost carrier recently hosted the 81st IATA AGM in Delhi. The opportune moment was also used by the airlines to share its ambitious expansion plan to the global media. At the pre-event media briefing, Mr. Peter Elbers, CEO, IndiGo in an open house interaction answered various questions which explained the vision and long terms plans for its future operations. Vishal Kashyap, Managing Editor, Aviation World also was part of the media briefings and he compiled the key interactive points for the reader’s. Excerpts…

Media: Recently, IndiGo has recently stepped into setting up MRO facility in Bengaluru. Also, it has committed to replace 10% of ATF by SAF by 2030. So could you highlight a bit more on these developments?

Peter Elbers: If you look to the aviation ecosystem in India, compared to where Indian aviation is going, a lot of that work on the MRO side is being done basically outside India. I think the opportunity is in India itself, with the young & highly skilled population and limited facilities really when it comes to the MRO. The opportunity really is out there and one need to start building it and in the model which IndiGo had years ago, six year leases and then planes were returned, is also changing. We keep planes longer as we get quite a lot of aircraft coming in.

The opportunity here to start really building our own MRO infrastructure is a fantastic opportunity and we take some help from people with experience who did that in the past. In Bangalore, we have taken 30 acres of land for the same purpose but it will take time to be developed. It’s really an important part of the journey we’re doing and aligns with Indian government vision to build up our own capabilities and our own resources here in India itself.

When it comes to fuel and stuff, I think it’s complicated a there is still the lack of availability. I think here the opportunity actually for IndiGo is the investment we make in keeping young fleet. Our airline in row has the lowest emissions and the youngest feet among all the operators. The reality in terms of what are exact numbers and percentages, I think that will further evolve over time.

Media: As you expand overseas, what would be your value proposition as you enter these new markets?

Peter Elbers: If you look at the product proposition IndiGo is having domestically and in the region, in fact, it’s an extremely valuable product proposition. Let me take an example of Singapore. Three years back, IndiGo was operating from three different cities in India into Singapore but today, we fly to nine or ten cities in India into Singapore and attracting a lot of Singaporean travelers as well. I think the opportunity here for us really is making sure that our network is a fantastic USP. The proposition we have from Dubai to travel pretty much anywhere into India, either direct or with a one-stop solution is in itself a wonderful product proposition. Then we are adjusting our product and creating a product for some market segments, the aspirational traveler, which has a premium segment as well, our business class and Indigo strategy.As we expand further, towards Manchester and Amsterdam, the fleet will include hot meals as we are adjusting our product to the routes and the regions we operate.

Media: How do you rationalize the cost along with extended services to the newer routes?

Peter Elbers: The journey we’re on is tailor-made our product to the markets we operate, keeping the basics and the foundations of IndiGo there, and with that, keeping ordering affordable fares. I think we have not, even for our European expansion, this hasn’t come like, let’s get some planes to start flying to these destinations and we’ve been prepared for this.The code shares, which we have been doing in preparations, we have been doing code shares from others with a lot of European airlines..

Media: Any routes you have decided to start from Noida Int. Airport and Navi Mumbai? Also, any plans to start cargo operations from there?

Peter Elbers: The number of precise destinations will be announced in due time as we’ve made a path where we have committed with New Delhi to international flights and building up a significant domestic network. So, allow us time to disclose what exact routes we will be operating from there. And clearly, the cargo opportunity is there both at the domestic and international routes. We have three of these narrow-body freighters in operation as of now and when the 350s are coming, we will have a lot of cargo capacity. Building up a cargo proposition from having a domestic network into flying cargo is a very different proposition. I think our product and our proposition will help us to participate in that market itself.

Media: How much confident you are in terms of timely delivery of newly ordered aircraft and its type? How do you see connecting the newly announced international routes?

Peter Elbers: From India, Manchester and Amsterdam is a good choice for IndiGo. But London clearly is part of that huge network. We are not going to disclose exact city now. On aircraft delivery, when we started with 350s and we made the order, the announcement was significant enough to make an record into our international and long-range flight and prudent enough to keep focusing also on the very core of the company., I’m not sure how I can visualize that, but there’s a foundation of having like 400 narrow bodies aircraft.

We serve every three days, one million customers and that’s why we are in hurry as India’s domestic market is growing and growing and growing. We also have confirmed order of 30 wide bodies, which we placed last year, which starts to allow us to go into those markets.

Are we confident on Airbus? We should be confident on Airbus and when it comes to our delivery scheme, we have so many orders that every delay is an unwelcome delay, but yet we can deal with some of the delays and some of the sort of optimizations of in- and out-of-schedules we’re having.

Media: You’ve announced about 8 new international destinations apart from Manchester and Amsterdam, which is already announced before. Would you like to share which Indian city would be on the other side of the moon.

Peter Elbers: We have announced total 10 international destinations and we had already announced and actually opened for sale Amsterdam and Manchester. For the 8 new destinations, we haven’t decided yet for which Indian cities will operate. The 787 aircraft allows us to have multiple options with not only Delhi and Mumbai, but the other places as well.

Media: To expand more into international routes, do you see more into alliance with foreign carriers or associations?

Peter Elbers: We’re having partnerships with different allies from different parts of the world. I think the way how IndiGo is basically dealing with this makes sense for the two parties to do the partnership. We have no short-term ambitions or no ambitions actually at this point in time to move into an alliance.