Dominating the Indian skies: IndiGo becomes the biggest Indian carrier for International and domestic travel

Low-cost carrier IndiGo Airlines is now dominating the Indian skies. Although it has established itself as the largest domestic air carrier long before, it has now established itself as the biggest player in flying people in and out of India.

Centre for Aviation, CAPA stated, “IndiGo has now overtaken Air India to become the largest single international airline operating to/from India in terms of seats deployed, accounting for 11.7% of total capacity. IndiGo is now the leader in both the domestic & international markets in India.”

According to the data available of DGCA (Director General of Civil Aviation) of the first quarter of this calendar year, Air India was leading the market with 17.6 lakh in and out of India followed by Jet Airways at 16.8 lakh and IndiGo Airlines at 14.5 lakh.

Soon after the Jet Airways stopped flying, things got changed quickly in the second quarter. Jet’s flying rights and its domestic slots of the airport were given to other air carriers temporarily. IndiGo with a steady aircraft order of 330 Airbus joining the fleet regularly was able to add a large number of international flights on Jet’s rights.

Due to the weak financial health of Air India, it could not utilize Jet’s international rights. CAPA stated, “The number of weekly international seats deployed by IndiGo Airlines to/from India has increased by 43% in the space of just three months.”

According to CAPA, IndiGo is the most prominent Indian carrier for international travel on a standalone basis. Although the Air India group, which includes Air India and Air India Express remains the largest Indian airline group for international travel at present.

With the financial crisis and cutting off oil supply buy the oil companies to Air India at six airports due to increasing huge debts, Air India faces an uncertain future. Whereas, IndiGo Airlines saw aggressive growth even before Jet went down.