New Delhi: India’s largest airline IndiGo, after ferrying 100 million passengers in 2023 in a calendar year has joined a select group of carriers globally. IndiGo is the first Indian airline to do so.
The airline in a statement said, “In CY (calendar year) 2022, the airline welcomed 78 million passengers on board (slightly above pre Covid-19 levels). IndiGo recently achieved another first for India, by becoming the first airline to operate more than 2,000 flights a day. Today, IndiGo operates to 118 destinations, including 32 international destinations.”
As India’s largest airline in the domestic as well as international segments, IndiGo in November had a domestic market share (by passengers carried) of 61.8 per cent, nearly six times the market share of the distant second Air India. In the international segment, IndiGo had a market share of 18.5 per cent in July-September among all international airlines operating flights from and to India.
IndiGo is also in the process of expanding its network and fleet. Earlier this year, it placed the largest-ever aircraft order in history, ordering 500 Airbus A320 family planes. In addition to the yet-to-be-delivered planes from earlier orders, IndiGo now has close to 1,000 planes on order, with deliveries planned well into the next decade.
“Over the last 6 months, IndiGo has added more than 20 new international routes to its network while strengthening domestic connectivity. Over the next few months, the airline aims to further add destinations like Bali, Indonesia, and Medina, Saudi Arabia to its network and deliver growth in the most financially and environmentally sound way possible,” IndiGo said.
The airline’s mega aircraft order and rapid network expansion reflects the carrier’s optimism about the growth potential of India’s aviation market, which has already become the third-largest globally and is growing at a breakneck speed. The increase in IndiGo’s air passenger traffic mirrors the rapid recovery that the Indian aviation sector has seen coming out of the pandemic.
