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IndiGo, India’s top airline by market share, is upgrading long-distance travel.
The low-cost carrier on Thursday placed its first-ever order for wide-body aircraft as part of its efforts to take a bigger slice of the international travel business from dominant Gulf airlines.
Keeping up with the growing demand for domestic as well as international air travel, IndiGo has placed an order for 30 A350-900 aircraft.
Here’s all we know about it.
The latest deal
IndiGo placed an order for 30 A350-900 aircraft, which can fly non-stop for approximately 16-17 hours, covering 15,400 kilometres. The carrier also has purchase rights for an additional 70 Airbus A350 family planes.
With three classes – Business, Premium Economy, and Economy, the aircraft can carry 316 passengers. A350-900 surpasses competitors like the Boeing 787-10 in length, passenger capacity, range, and fuel efficiency, making it perfect for long-distance travel, as per The Hindu.
The deliveries are expected to begin in 2027.
“IndiGo agreed to place an order for 30 Firm A350-900 aircraft, which will enable IndiGo to spread its wings further and expand its network. From the various Indian metros, IndiGo will be able to connect to the world. The aircraft will be powered by Rolls Royce’s Trent XWB engine,” a statement by the airline said.
It added, “The mission capability of this aircraft coupled with the efficiency of the Trent XWB engine will offer IndiGo unprecedented optionality as it embarks on the next stage of its wonderful journey of addressing the rapidly evolving needs of the Indian customer and our nation,” it added.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsWhile Airbus no longer publishes prices, its latest deal with IndiGo’s would be worth more than $9 billion, as per the last catalogue rates published in 2018.
In practice, industry sources say airplanes are sold for less than half the listing price after typical discounts for bulk orders, as per Reuters.
Expanding wings
IndiGo, which has a 60 per cent share in the country’s domestic aviation market, aims to double its total capacity by the end of the decade and expand its network in international markets.
The new A350-900 planes will allow the airline to operate ultra-long-haul flights – destinations in Europe and North America, bypassing the Gulf, and as far afield as Australia to the Far East – putting it in direct competition with Air India and Vistara, as per the news agency.
The new fleet “will allow IndiGo to embark on its next phase of becoming one of the leading global aviation players,” the airline’s chief executive, Pieter Elbers, said in a statement.
The carrier currently deploys 27 per cent of its capacity, in the form of available seat kilometres, on international routes.
It recently started flying to destinations in Africa, West Asia and Southeast Asia, and is also growing its presence in Europe through its codeshare partnership with seven carriers, including Turkish Airlines and KLM.
For those uninitiated, IndiGo is already one of Airbus’s largest customers, as it announced a 500-aircraft deal with the aircraft manufacturing company – a record in the history of aviation.
Its current outstanding order book stands at a whopping 1,000 planes, which includes the A320NEO, A321NEO, and A321XLR, as per India Today.
The growing air traffic
Indian carriers are trying to keep pace with the air traffic growth in the country, where demand for both domestic and international air travel has surged post-pandemic, even as plane manufacturers struggled to meet output goals.
Last year, according to The Hindu Business Line, Air India introduced about 40 Airbus A350s, a mix of A350-1000s and A350-900s, in a clear plan to up the game in long-distance flights.
The number of international air travellers in India is expected to grow to 160 million by 2030 from 64 million in 2019, according to industry and government data, but the bulk of the traffic still goes to foreign carriers, such as Emirates.
Foreign airlines accounted for 55 per cent of outbound international traffic from India in the final quarter of last year, according to latest government data.
With inputs from Reuters
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