IndiGo eyes Tier-II, III cities for growth

IndiGo Airlines, largest of the low-cost carriers, is looking at linking more Tier-II and Tier-III cities. “We are looking at expanding by launching new flights to these destinations,” its president, Aditya Ghosh, said on the sidelines of India Aviation 2010, jointly organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the Ministry of Civil Aviation. “There are many small cities like Srinagar, Jammu, Nagpur and Agartala that have the potential to provide huge passenger numbers,” he added.

IndiGo operates 161 flights a day, of which half go to Tier-II and III cities. It plans to increase the proportion of flights to smaller cities to 60 per cent of the total, which they plan to increase to 235 by the end of this year.

“With the delivery of a new plane today, we plan to increase our flights to 175 per day by March-end and to 235 by December,” Ghosh said. He added that the airline will be taking delivery of nine aircraft in the next financial year.

Analysts also feel the smaller cities have the potential to lead aviation’s growth story but it should come from smaller aircraft. “Only then will the airlines be able to encash it,” said Kapil Kaul, CEO at the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, a consultancy firm.

IndiGo also increased its yields by 15 per cent in the third quarter of this financial year over the same period last year. This quarter, too, yields for the airline are looking up by 10-15 per cent.

To feed the growth plans, IndiGo has planned to increase its staff by 60 per cent. They are looking at hiring 1,000 people — 100 pilots, 400 cabin crew and other passenger service staff in this calendar year. The company currently has 2,500 employees.