Low-cost airline Indigo, which already rules the Indian market, is all set to take over the world. The pandemic had hit a blow on domestic flight business with international travel prohibited for most of last year.
However, the Indian airline was quick in coping up. Reportedly, it has recovered 80% of the normal market conditions that were present before the pandemic. While its rivals are still struggling, the airline is experiencing an improvement in market share.
Indigo Records Improve Even After The Pandemic
Even after the economic downturn, the market share of Indigo increased to 52% in 2020 as compared to 47% in 2019. Currently, the airline has the seventh-largest capacity in the world after the US and China.
Besides, Indigo is also establishing itself in smaller cities like Ranchi, Patna and Gorakhpur so that it can compensate for the losses experienced in usually popular business travel routes like New Delhi- Mumbai.
The company also feels that it can gain higher margins and achieve faster growth by deploying non-stop narrowbody planes instead of widebody to international termini like Moscow, Cairo, and Manila.
The airline is also investing in new fuel efficient models. Last year it bought 44 planes from Airbus SE surpassing Delta Air Lines Inc and China Southern Airlines Co Ltd. It will resume its expansion in the sector in 2023 after it recovers completely.
Indigo To Recover Fully By The End Of The Year
While sharing some insights, the CEO of Indigo Ronojoy Dutta said that he is optimistic that the airline will be totally back to normal by the end of 2021. He also expressed his expectations of growth and profitability in the year 2022.
Reportedly, Indigo airlines had 89.3 billion rupees a week after the lockdown was applied in India that is around 31st March 2020. However, to survive in this lockdown, the company added more 30 billion rupees in its account by selling and leasing some of its assets in the next six months.
Even after a year of the emergence of COVID 19, flights can fly only with a maximum of 80% of its total capacity in India.
Indigo Planning To Expand In International Market
Indigo is way ahead of most of its rivals like SpiceJet Ltd, Malaysia’s AirAsia Group Bhd, and Indonesia’s Lion Air in recovering from the recession brought by the grave pandemic.
Speaking about it, the head of Malaysian consultancy Endau Analytics, Shukor Yusof highlighted that Indigo is all set to spread across the sub-continent after cleverly establishing a strong base in India.
Before the pandemic, 25% of Indigo’s fleet was dedicated to international routes. But now that intercontinental travel is restricted, only 20% of international flights are operational.
Besides, the company has already ordered 580 planes from Airbus which are delivered at the rate of 50 units per year. Even after that, the CEO assured that the company has enough planes to fly everywhere. Hence the airline might reserve some part of the order for later years by asking the supplier to pause the supply somewhere in 2024-25.
He is also expecting to increase the capacity of planes deployed to the international market each year.
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