Indigo Makes History By Flying 100 Million Passengers In A Single Calendar Year

Private airline Indigo has created history by “becoming the first Indian airline to carry 100 million passengers in a single calendar year”.

“IndiGo, India’s preferred carrier, has created history by becoming the first Indian airline to carry 100 million passengers in a single calendar year. With this achievement, it has joined a select club of global carriers to operate on such a scale. This development further cements IndiGo’s standing among the 10 largest airlines in the world by passenger traffic,” the Hindustan Times reported, quoting IndiGo”s statement.

Commenting on the 100 million passengers a year milestone, Pieter Elbers, Chief Executive Officer of IndiGo, said, “This landmark figure is the result of the love and trust shown by our customers and the hard work and passion of all IndiGo colleagues.”

Indigo had started 20 additional international services in the past half year. It also has plans to add more sought-after routes, such as Bali, Indonesia, and Medina, Saudi Arabia, to its network in the coming months, according to a statement released by the airline.

In the domestic market, Indigo continued its dominance with 61.8 percent passenger share, which is six times higher than Air India, which holds second place in terms of passenger share.  Indigo is projected to deliver close to 1,000 planes, which they kept as a backlog, over the next decade.

Since May, Indigo has been able to leverage the vacuum created by Go First, which had been grounded due to a lack of spare parts and delayed engine deliveries. Indigo was able to harness the backlog to operate along the routes, which were previously operated by Go First.

However, in January, the market share of the airline is expected to shrink given the possible grounding of 30–40 planes. It already has over 40 aircraft grounded.