From Air Taxis To Wide-body Aircraft: IndiGo's Long Hauls Of Many Firsts The airline has agreed to place an order for 30 Firm A350-900 widebody aircraft, powered by Rolls Royce's Trent XWB engine; recently it also announced to bring in all-electric air taxi service in India
By Shrabona Ghosh •
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IndiGo is strengthening its future with the introduction of wide-body aircraft to its fleet and all-electric air taxi service in India.
The airline has agreed to place an order for 30 Firm A350-900 widebody aircraft, powered by Rolls Royce's Trent XWB engine. Currently, IndiGo operates over 350 aircraft. Last year, in June 2023, IndiGo placed an aircraft order for 500 aircraft with Airbus. With that, the outstanding orderbook of A320 Family aircraft stands at almost 1,000 aircraft which are yet to be delivered well into the next decade. This IndiGo order-book comprises a mix of A320NEO, A321NEO and A321XLR aircraft. This new order will bring the strategic relationship between IndiGo and Airbus to an unprecedented level in terms of depth, breadth, and size. For the relationship between IndiGo and Rolls Royce, this marks the beginning of a long relationship. In an earlier conversation with Entrepreneur India, Kishore Jayaraman, president, Rolls-Royce, India & South Asia had said Rolls-Royce would be glad to have a partnership with IndiGo, "If ever the airline wishes to place a widebody aircraft order, we would be happy to collaborate."
The exact configuration of the aircraft will be decided at a later stage, and the deliveries are expected to start from 2027. In addition to the 30 Firm A350-900 order, IndiGo has purchase rights for an additional 70 Airbus A350 Family aircraft, at its discretion, for possible future needs under certain conditions.
Specifically in aviation, the Indian government has stated its mission to ensure that by 2030 India comes into her own on the world stage of aviation leadership by building cutting edge infrastructure and developing the country into a global aviation hub. "I am incredibly proud and excited with today's milestone; IndiGo enters the widebody space with 30 firm Airbus A350-900 aircraft. A new wonderful chapter in the beautiful IndiGo journey and story is now in the making. As for me, I am excited, humbled and proud to be part of this super exciting journey for IndiGo and India!," Pieter Elbers, CEO of IndiGo, said in a LinkedIn post.
InterGlobe Enterprises, the parent company of IndiGo, and US-based Archer Aviation will introduce an all-electric air taxi service in India in 2026, that will carry passengers from Connaught Place in Delhi to Gurugram in Haryana in just 7 minutes. Similar services will also be launched in Mumbai and Bengaluru. Similar services will also be launched in Mumbai and Bengaluru. As per the deal, Archer Aviation will provide 200 electric vertical takeoffs and landing (VTOL) aircraft, each having 12 rotors, worth around USD 1 billion. These planes will be able to carry a maximum of four passengers and a pilot. It will operate like a helicopter but with reduced noise levels and improved safety features.
What's the secret sauce to IndiGo's success? As compared to other indian carriers Indigo is better managed. "They will retain their pre-eminent position in the Indian market, it has adopted some great HR policies which have kept their people motivated and happy," said Sanjay Lazar, an aviation expert and CEO Avialaz Consultants.
A week ago, Lazar shared with Entrepreneur India that he foresees IndiGo selecting a wide body, which he believes will be a toss-up between the Airbus A350-1000 or the 787-9, "Though my personal choice would be the Boeing 777-300 ER. Having analyzed IndiGo's operations from a distance, I anticipate a high yield two class only for the international long/ medium haul product, with belly cargo, embellishing its revenues," he had said.
In the second week of April, IndiGo became the world's third-largest airline in terms of market capitalization (m-cap). Delta Air and Ryanair Holdings were the other top two airlines, respectively. IndiGo surpassed United Airlines to become the sixth largest airline in the world during December 2023. In June 2023, crossing another milestone, the market valuation of InterGlobe Aviation, the parent of IndiGo, reached INR 1 lakh crore mark. It was the first Indian airline to achieve this breakthrough.
