IndiGo Passes Ailing Air India As Country’s Largest International Carrier

IndiGo has passed flag carrier Air India as the largest international airline operating to and from India based on passengers carried, reports CAPA India. The low-cost carrier now accounts for 11.7% of total capacity in the country and is now leading in both domestic and international markets in India. 

IndiGo benefited from the suspension of service by Jet Airways on April 12, as it was one of several carriers that were “temporarily” given the distressed carrier’s valuable international airport slots that Air India could’t handle due to its own weak financial state, reports the Times of India.

The carrier, based in the city of Gurgaon with a hub at Indira Gandhi International Airport, is also the largest based on its fleet of 238 aircraft, including Airbus A320s, A320neos, A321s and ATR 72-600 turboprops. (In 2015, IndiGo ordered 250 Airbus A320neos, the biggest single order ever in Airbus history.) IndiGo is also the largest Asian low-cost carrier in terms of passengers and fleet size.

Founded in 2006, IndiGo ordered 100 A320s and started flying between New Delhi to Imphal. Four years later, it passed Air India as the country’s third-largest airline after Kingfisher Airlines and Jet Airways, respectively. 

The airline made big moves in 2011, ordering 10 A320s and announced plans to start international flights. A year later, it had a fleet of 50 jets, which helped drive it to become the country’s most profitable carrier and the second-largest based on market share. It then passed Jet Airways to become the largest airline in India based on market share a mere six years after its founding.

IndiGo has announced new flights between Delhi-Singapore starting September 12. It’s also adding two more Delhi-Doha flights to the eight it currently operates.

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