Pieter Elbers: Indian budget airline IndiGo is ready to chase new frontiers

Gulf News

For India’s airlines, the action on the ground is getting to be as intense as the competition in the skies. New carriers have joined the race for market share, while existing players are adding new destinations - within India and outside - to throttle their way back into growth - and profitability.  Read the full story here: https://gulfnews.com/business/aviation/watch-indian-budget-airline-indigo-is-ready-to-chase-new-frontiers-ceo-pieter-elbers-1.90805884  See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km  Subscribe to Gulf News on YouTube and watch more of our videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/GulfNewsTV  #UAEnews #aviation #airlines

Transcript

00:00We operated during the bubble a lot between the UAE and between India, and we see that's

00:16part of the traffic which has come back also very fast.

00:19We already operate quite a few flights and destinations between India and the UAE.

00:24What makes Indigo standing out is that we choose not only to go to the big cities, but

00:29also to the smaller ones, and the fact that we today inaugurate this unique flight and

00:33this very first flight is just underlining our network strategy going forward.

00:38Allocation of aircraft on the specific route is changing all the time, so it will depend

00:42on the number of passengers, on the demand in the market and so on.

00:46What I'm very encouraged about is today this very first flight was almost full.

00:50The booking for the next few days are very high, so that encourages us to put larger

00:55aircraft on this route.

00:56Again, we haven't taken a final decision on it yet, but the first bookings and the

01:00first indications are very encouraging.

01:02Indigo, I guess, is known for affordable prices, so that's very much the basis and part of

01:07our strategy, and in this route, of course, we'll follow that very same strategy.

01:12If we see that the caps, they were introduced at a very specific time, at the time of COVID.

01:18It's good that after COVID is passed, we just go back to a sort of normal market practices,

01:24and with that, we can see that the fares which are offered are a reflection of the

01:29actual market situation, so sometimes they will be higher, sometimes they will be lower.

01:33People of Indigo are the very core asset of our company, and what the people of Indigo

01:38have built over the years is really impressive, and at the end of the day, it's a people's

01:43business we're in.

01:44They serve the customers, they fly the planes, they help our customers going forward, so

01:49that is the very basis of what we are.

01:51When it comes to international expansion, this is our 26th international destination.

01:56As I said before, we do have 74 destinations in India.

02:00Well, looking at the region itself, the opportunities of further expanding are massive, so we'll

02:06continue to add new destinations.

02:08Recently, we did already Bahrain, today we have Raj Al Khaimah, so we'll continue to

02:13build on that.

02:14I will not disclose today what's the next one.

02:16We wanted to keep number 100 for this one, we're celebrating that today.

02:19It's a very meaningful and very important number for us to reach these 100 destinations.

02:25We picked this destination today to do that, and we'll continue to build on our network.

02:29We already do have some operations from India to Doha, of course, so our focus will continue

02:34to operate out of India to other places, both within India and outside India.

02:39Well, inflation, of course, is an important topic, and we see prices going up, we see

02:43the price of fuel going up, and that, to some extent, has to be reflected also in the fares

02:48for air travel, which we do.

02:50So yes, inflation is affecting us, and we'll continue to adjust our operation to that.

02:55The supply chain challenges is a very important element, not only for Indigo, but also for

03:01other airlines.

03:02So, of course, we're closely coordinating with our suppliers of aircraft, of engines,

03:07to make sure that whatever we have ordered will be coming in on time, it's very important.

03:11We have ambitious growth plans, we want to move forward, so we're in close contact with

03:16the suppliers of engines and planes in order to facilitate our growth, because, again,

03:22we see that the demand in the market is massive, and we want to facilitate that demand.

03:27We want to continue to facilitate our customers, and if our customers want to fly, and again,

03:32today's flight is a great example of that, we should have the capacity available in doing

03:36so.

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