TravTalk India Online Magazine
India’s leading airline, IndiGo, celebrated its 18th anniversary in style, organising a huge celebration at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi recently. Pieter Elbers, Chief Executive Officer, IndiGo, made several big announcements on the occasion, including the airline’s expansion plans and revamping of its website with a new UI/ UX design.
Surbhi Sharma
Celebrating the 18 years of IndiGo’s incredible journey in India, Pieter Elbers, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), IndiGo, said that the airline is committed to enhancing customer experience and expanding its footprint in India and internationally. “As India’s leading carrier, we are constantly looking at ways of improving our service offering to our millions of customers. With India’s soaring economy and the evolving aspirations of the Indian society, it is time for us to redefine air travel again and provide our evolving customers more benefits as they travel the world on us,” said Elbers, addressing an audience, including people from the travel community, IndiGo’s partners, investors, and the airline’s leadership.
Ever since its launch in 2006, IndiGo has revolutionised the air travel in India. The airline flies to 88 domestic destinations with over 400 routes, providing connectivity to all large, medium, and smaller cities across India.
Global expansion plans
IndiGo has also embarked on an internation journey by serving 33 cities and over 100 international routes. Elaborating on the expansion plans, Elbers announced that IndiGo will launch flights to seven more international destinations before the end of FY2024. Earlier this month, it announced the launch of flights to Jaffna in Sri Lanka. With the new launches, the airline will cover 40 global destinations.
IndiGo has a domestic market share of nearly 61 per cent and around 975 planes on order. At the end of June, the airline had 382 planes, including 18 aircraft on wet lease. The carrier will be getting A321 XLR planes in 2025 and wide-body A350 aircraft in 2027.
IndiGo Stretch
Launching its newest business product, Elbers said, “A new era of our IndiGo journey has started with our tailor-made business product- ‘IndiGo Stretch’ on the busiest, business routes of the country, redefining business travel in India. It is a coupe-style, 2-seat wide bay, crafted to provide customers with a relaxed and comfortable journey.” The product opens for booking from 6 August on the Delhi-Mumbai sector, starting from mid-November at an introductory fare of `18,018. The product will be operational on most metro-to-metro routes, with all 12 domestic routes expected to be served by the end of 2025. “The move marks a significant shift for IndiGo which has traditionally operated as a no-frills carrier,” he said.
IndiGo BluChip
Elbers also announced the launch of their much-awaited loyalty programme at the event. “IndiGo BluChip is designed to recognise and reward its unwavering loyal customers with BluChips on IndiGo flights,” he concluded.
