IndiGo CEO pitches for India as global hub for connecting flights

The Hindu

3 days ago

With 65% of the world population within 5-6 hours of flying distance from India, the country has the potential to be a global aviation hub as well as expand its outbound travel market, IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers said on Friday ahead of a major international airlines meet being hosted in the national capital.
'If you realise that 65% of the world population lives within five to six hours of flying time from India, it basically means we have an opportunity to start building India not only as a point- to- point destination, but also as a great place to connect,' Elbers said during a press briefing. IndiGo is the host airline for International Air Transport Association's 3-day summit starting June 1 which will see over 1700 participates. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also give an address at the event.
'If there could be great hubs to the west and east of India, why shouldn't we have it here. So, the opportunity really is to build it going forward,' he added.
The pitch for building India as a hub (or a central transfer point that connects passengers between multiple international destinations), which is the direction the Indian government has been driving the industry towards for the past few years, comes at a time IndiGo is set to enter the long-haul market with non-stop flights to destinations in Europe such as Manchester and Amsterdam that will be launched in early July, and London and Copenhagen that are expected to take off during the winter season.
There will be more destinations such as Athens in Greece that the airline will fly to once it starts adding Airbus A321 XLRs to its fleet by the end of this year. The airline will start adding its own brand new widebodies from 2027 when the Airbus A350s will join its fleet allowing it 'the opportunity to go anywhere in the world.'
Investments were needed in infrastructure as well as the aviation industry to execute hub ambitions, he said, as aviation was 'a force for good'. Aviation makes a contribution of $54 billion to India's GDP, or equivalent of 1.5% of the GDP. It creates 8 million jobs where one aircraft results in the creation of over 100 new airline jobs, and one aviation job results in 6.1 jobs economy wide, Mr Elbers said.
To bolster the case for India to become an aviation hub, the IndiGo CEO said that while the world was still recovering from the impact of Covid-19, India was expected to record 20% more passengers this year than pre-COVID-19, while IndiGo had clocked 118 million passengers last year as compared to 78 million pre pandemic- almost 50% growth in passengers.
'There is an enormous opportunity as an international outbound tourism market. There is unstoppable growth,' Mr. Elbers said.
There is also potential for airlines to expand as there were only 0.13 flight seats per capita in India, which was one-fifth of 0.59 per capita seats in China for domestic travellers. On the international front, the per capita seats in India were half of China, he said. On Friday, the airline also announced an agreement with Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) for building a state-of-the art MRO (Maintenance Repair Overhaul) facility on 31 acre of land.