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IndiGo set to consolidate Dubai, Muscat operations

IndiGo, India’s largest airline and one of the fastest growing low-cost carriers in the world, on Sunday ruled out any immediate plans to add new destinations in the GCC but said it would rather focus on consolidating its operations in Dubai and Muscat.

Aditya Ghosh, president of IndiGo, said the airline would be beefing up operations to Dubai by adding more Indian destinations going forward. “Early next year, we plan to launch services connecting Dubai to Trivandum and Calicut,” he said.

Last week, the carrier announced the expansion of Dubai operations with the launch of new services connecting the emirate with various south Indian destinations. Effective August 2012, IndiGo will operate flights to Dubai from Hyderabad, Chennai and Kochi in addition to launching its second daily direct flights on Delhi-Dubai and Delhi-Bangkok sectors. The carrier will be offering an introductory return fare of Dh734 on these new flights.

Ghosh, speaking in Dubai at the launch of IndiGo’s new Arabic website in the presence of M.K. Lokesh, Indian Ambassador to the UAE, said his airline, which had steadfastly bucked the global aviation downturn by recording consistent profit and growth over the past few years, would grow faster than the industry average forecast at 15 and 20 per cent in future.

With a current fleet of 57 aircraft, 32 destinations, 351 daily flights and 24.9 per cent market share, the no-frill carrier, which currently boasts one of the world’s best on-time service records of 92 per cent, seeks to double its fleet size and capacity within five years, Ghosh said. “This year we will be carrying 18 million passengers and by 2016, it would be 30 million,” he said.

The Arabic website has been specifically designed for both business and leisure travellers, said Ghosh. “The launch of this website reflects IndiGo’s commitment to the Middle East region and the importance it gives to promoting ties between the two cultures. IndiGo is the only Indian carrier operating out of the UAE to have launched this website.” Ambassador Lokesh lauded IndiGo’s track record for consistency and professionalism as well as its innovative approach. “I am very pleased to see IndiGo’s commitment to re-define the standards in the airline business,” he said.

Indigo, which is operating a fleet comprising Airbus aircraft, would continue stay with the European plan, said Ghosh. The airline placed on order 100 Airbus A320 in 2005 and in 2011 set a record by announcing what it termed as the largest single aircraft order for 180 A-320s worth an estimated $15.6 billion from the European plane manufacturer.

Ghosh said Indigo could enhance cost efficiency by further reducing its employee per aircraft ratio to 96 from 102 a year ago. The airline’s technical dispatch reliability is 99.91 per cent making it the airline with the least number of cancellations in India. Recently, as part of major fuel-saving initiative, IndiGo became the first airline in India to conduct Required Navigation Performance (RNP) approach that enable accurate and shorter flight path on contained and secure trajectories, he pointed out.

— issacjohn@khaleejtimes.com