IndiGo pips Southwest to become world's 3rd most valuable airline by mcap

IndiGo's share price jumped by 4.73 per cent to Rs 3,806 on Wednesday, thereby elevating its market capitalisation to $17.605 billion

IndiGo, India's largest airline, on Wednesday pipped US-based Southwest Airlines in terms of market capitalisation to become the world's third most valuable airline, according to Bloomberg data.

IndiGo's share price jumped by 4.73 per cent to Rs 3,806 on Wednesday. Therefore, its market capitalisation jumped to $17.605 billion, which was ahead of Southwest's market capitalisation of $17.333 billion.

The world's top two airlines in terms of market cap are Delta Airlines ($30.442 billion) and Ryanair ($26.941 billion). IndiGo is the only Indian carrier among the world's top 10 airlines, as per the Bloomberg data. 

IndiGo is currently operating 14,014 flights per week, according to Cirium's data. This is 11.2 per cent more than what it was operating in April last week.

The world's two largest aircraft orders were placed by IndiGo and Air India in the last year. In June 2023, IndiGo had placed an order for 500 A320neo family planes with Airbus. In February 2023, Air India Group had placed an order for 470 planes: 250 with Airbus and 220 with Boeing.

India is expected to become the centre of world aviation in the next 15 years as the demand, the capacity and professionally-run airlines are present in the country's aviation market, Edward Delahaye, Head of Customer Accounts for India and South Asia at Airbus, had said in February.

India has about 800 commercial aircraft operating in its skies and the majority of them are from European plane-maker Airbus. 

"If you add domestic traffic growth, the GDP growth in the country, recapturing a lot of international traffic from other international airports, and establishing India as a connecting place in the world, I think the prospects of Indian aviation are very bright, well beyond what we are seeing today," he added.

Top global airlines companies by Mcap

Company Name (as on Apr 10)	Country	Mcap $ Mn	Change $ Mn*
Delta Air Lines Inc	UNITED STATES	30442	199
Ryanair Holdings PLC	IRELAND	26941	569
InterGlobe Aviation	INDIA	17605	759
Southwest Airlines Co	UNITED STATES	17333	239
Air China	CHINA	14519	140
Singapore Airlines	SINGAPORE	14321	224
United Airlines Holdings Inc	UNITED STATES	14283	43
Turk Hava Yollari AO	TURKEY	13228	-123
China Southern Airlines Co	CHINA	12170	61
International Consolidated Air	BRITAIN	11131	277
ANA Holdings Inc	JAPAN	10028	-23
China Eastern Airlines Corp	CHINA	9743	93
Deutsche Lufthansa AG	GERMANY	9533	220
American Airlines Group Inc	UNITED STATES	9117	33
Japan Airlines Co	JAPAN	8350	161

*Change over previous day
Source: Bloomberg