IndiGo premium push: 45 aircraft with biz class by 2026
- The premium business product, which offers comfortable and spacious recliner seating facility, will by early January 2025 cover all Delhi-Mumbai flights. This will be followed by full integration on the Delhi-Bengaluru and Delhi-Chennai routes by March 2025.
New Delhi: Buoyed by an enthusiastic response, India's largest air carrier IndiGo plans to expand its business-class product IndiGoStretch to about 45 aircraft by 2026, from two planes currently.
The Gurugram-based airline is currently implementing a phased rollout of IndiGoStretch, which was announced in August this year starting with the Delhi-Mumbai sector.
"Over the next 14 months, we will introduce 45 IndiGoStretch aircraft, expanding service to 12 routes with a frequency of over 260 daily flights," a company spokesperson said in an emailed response to Mint's query.
Also read | IndiGo: Navigating turbulence as market leader
The premium business product, which offers comfortable and spacious recliner seating facility, will by early January 2025 cover all Delhi-Mumbai flights. This will be followed by full integration on the Delhi-Bengaluru and Delhi-Chennai routes by March 2025. According to its website, the product will operate on most of the metro-to-metro routes, with all 12 routes expected to be served by the end of 2025, a year after the launch of the service.
With this expansion, IndiGo is estimated to be offering premium capacity in about 10% of its total fleet by then. The airline has a fleet size of about 410 aircraft as of 30 September, and is expected to grow to over 450 aircraft by around 2026.
IndiGo vs Air India
Air India Group says it will have about 94 aircraft with business class cabins by June 2025 - a large number of which would be used for international flights.
Also read | Class war: IndiGo shows Air India it means business
Some aviation experts said the lack of footrest in IndiGoStretch does not allow it to offer full comfort to passengers. Ajay Prakash, president of Travel Agents Association of India (TAFI) said, “With the current seat, IndiGo will face a challenge as it lacks a footrest at the moment. The domestic air traffic is booming, we've been carrying a record number of passengers, and we don't foresee a big problem in filling these seats once they have a more extensive sort of coverage.”
The business class foray by IndiGo is intended to provide a premium alternative to fliers. The premium class market is dominated by the Air India Group after Vistara merged with it. The merged entity offers business class and premium economy seats on its aircraft and plans to offer it on key metro routes.
Air India Express - the low-cost entity from the group - offers business class capacity but may not continue with it in the future. AI Express has business class capacity on aircraft that were intended for another airline but were delivered to AI express after the other airline refused to take deliveries. Such aircraft in aviation parlance are termed white tail aircraft.
With reduction in business class capacity, premium class fares on key routes have seen a surge too, industry watchers say.
Also read | Air India eyes regional aviation space in challenge to IndiGo
IndiGo seems to have cashed in on the surge, and the airline said that the initial response to IndiGoStretch has been very positive, which aligns with its projected performance indicators.
“Forward booking trends are encouraging and as we expand IndiGoStretch across key business routes, we anticipate increased market awareness and continued strong demand. We are well-positioned to accommodate this anticipated demand,” IndiGo said.
IndiGoStretch made its debut on 14 November with a Delhi-Mumbai flight. Currently, IndiGo operates 10 daily flights featuring IndiGoStretch between Delhi and Mumbai.
Also see: Can Akasa become a viable alternative to IndiGo and Air India for flyers?
While an average IndiGoStretch ticket start at ₹18,000, Air India's business class seats start at ₹21,000.
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First Published:10 Dec 2024, 02:39 PM IST
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