New Delhi, Nov 2 Confident of navigating the industry’s challenges, IndiGo CEO Willie Walsh on Monday said there are “incredible” growth opportunities and called for lower airport charges and taxes, while also outlining long-haul international expansion plans with wide-body A350 planes from the second quarter of 2028.
Against the backdrop of surging fuel prices roiling the airline’s profitability, Walsh, who took charge as CEO in August, said there are no plans to consider fuel price hedging for now.
In his first in-person media interaction, Walsh, an aviation industry veteran and former IATA chief, said the airline industry situation is challenging, and IndiGo will navigate through the challenges.
The country’s largest airline with a domestic market share of over 65 per cent has a strong local network and currently operates around 2,200 flights with a fleet of over 430 planes.
Asserting that IndiGo will succeed in its long-haul flight expansion since it operates in a very efficient manner, Walsh said the airline will not compromise on its core of narrow-body short-haul operations to facilitate the expansion of long-haul wide-body services.
“I think that is a mistake that many in the industry have made in the past when they compromise on the efficiency of the short haul because it makes a contribution to the revenue of the long haul. We will not do that because… we don’t need to do that we’ve got a very significant network that can naturally feed our long-haul operations,” he said.
He noted that there was no need to redesign the network at home airports since there are sufficient volumes and frequency of flights without compromising on the efficiency of the short-haul operations.
IndiGo expects to start getting the wide-body A350 aircraft from the second quarter of 2028. The airline has all the ingredients to succeed in the long-haul market, he said.
The A350s will have a three-class configuration — 16 flat beds in business class, premium economy and economy class seats. The configuration is locked for the first 10 A350 planes and the airline would look at having more flat beds in business class later, Walsh said.
Amid the headwinds from high fuel prices and airspace curbs, IndiGo has discontinued operations of leased wide-body Boeing 787 planes. Generally, long-haul flights last more than eight hours.
According to Walsh, the airline is not considering fuel hedging as of now and might go for such an option once the airline starts expanding its long-haul operations.
In the September quarter, IndiGo reported a loss of Rs 1,879.1 crore on higher fuel costs and rupee depreciation.
Walsh, who as IATA chief had strong views about airport charges and taxes in India, said his views have not changed.
Airport charges are too high and having lower charges as well as taxes will provide the opportunity to expand in India, he said and emphasised that all stakeholders need to focus on their cost base.
In response to a question from PTI on his current views, he said, “I have not changed my view”. “Airport charges are too high and so this market would do much better if we had lower taxes. So lower taxes, lower airport charges, that is the way forward.
Against the backdrop of foreign airlines opposing the proposed partial shifting of international flights from Mumbai to Navi Mumbai airport, Walsh said that he was not concerned about what other airlines are saying at the moment.
Navi Mumbai airport presents a big opportunity for IndiGo as it aims to expand the international long-haul network and the decision to partly shift overseas flights to the airport from Mumbai is in the interest of the airline, he said.
In October, IndiGo, Air India and Akasa Air agreed to partially shift their international flights to the Navi Mumbai airport in the coming months.
Under its Vision 2030 targets, IndiGo aims to have a fleet of more than 550 aircraft, around 3,000 daily departures, roughly 200 million annual passengers, and international capacity reaching 40 per cent of its network.
Known for his frank and direct style at the helm of the global airlines’ body IATA, Walsh previously served as a pilot before rising to COO and then CEO of Aer Lingus (2000-2005), CEO of British Airways (2005-2011) and CEO of IAG (2011-2020).
(PTI News)
