Vinay Malhotra – IndiGo has a promising market in- and outside India |

India is among the top five countries from which tourists arrive in Indonesia. The Indonesian Tourism Minister is confident that with the start of the direct daily flight by IndiGo, the number of tourist arrivals will go up. Vinay Malhotra, Global Head of Sales of IndiGo, met with select Indian media outlets, including AirInsight, at the Le Meridien in downtown Jakarta. Excerpts from the interview: AirInsight - This is the first time since IndiGo has gone international that the airline is launching flights to six new international destinations, apart from enhancing international connectivity from more Indian cities. Is the airline’s focus shifting more towards the international market, now that IndiGo has an over 60 percent domestic market share? Vinay Malhotra – “We are flying to 78 points in India, overseas we are flying to 28 cities. India is continuing to be our focus. Simultaneously, we are also developing more and more international destinations.” “In India, we do have a promising market share. Outside India, we are trying to develop more countries and more cities, so that we can provide direct connectivity to go to destinations such as Jakarta, Tbilisi, Baku, Almaty, and Tashkent. The idea is that whilst we continue to focus on India we also develop as many new destinations as possible.” AirInsight - Most of your destinations currently are within five to six hours from India. Is it because your fleet has essentially been limited by the Airbus A320 family, whereas your major competitor in India now, the Tata Group airlines, is focusing more on relatively longer haul hops? How do you position yourself when your competition is doing that? Vinay Malhotra - “We aren't focusing on any competition from that perspective. We prefer to look at what we need to do. We prefer to look at our strengths. And we prefer to look at the fact that we need to continue to focus on our affordable fares, on-time performance, and safety track record.” AirInsight - What are the plans for the Gulf region? Vinay Malhotra - “The Gulf has always been one of our largely penetrated markets. We fly I think 94 times a week into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. We fly close to 200 flights into the rest of the Gulf, predominantly into the UAE. And, of course, we have Qatar-Doha. We have Bahrain and Kuwait.” “We feel that a couple of markets in the Gulf are constrained because of bilaterals or restrictions. But wherever possible, whenever possible, we try to continue to explore new opportunities to get people to fly to the Gulf from India. If you look at our network, we are providing connections to the Gulf not only from Delhi and Mumbai but a host of Indian cities. We have even looked at Ahmedabad and Bhubaneshwar. The idea is to connect more of India to more of anywhere in the world wherever possible.” On August 11, IndiGo launched daily direct services from Ahmedabad to Abu Dhabi as well as to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. Early this month, the airline reported its highest-ever quarterly results. AirInsight - How much do your international operations help, given the fact that the Indian rupee fluctuates and that really hits your bottom line? Vinay Malhotra - “I wouldn't have those numbers readily. But of course, whether it is fuel prices or foreign exchange fluctuations, these things do have an impact on any business operations, especially an airline.” AirInsight: But do you think focusing more on international is helping to cushion the bottom line a bit thanks to the foreign exchange earnings from these flights? Vinay Malhotra - “I think both foreign exchange and fuel pricing have a big impact on an airline's functioning but to what extent would it really make an impact I wouldn't be able to answer.” AirInsight - If you could give us some idea about which other international regions/markets you are focusing on in the near to medium term? Vinay Malhotra – “There's a very large population that resides within six to seven hours of flying time from India. India, from that perspective, is pretty much in a very comfortable space in terms of providing connections both eastwards as well as westwards. As for us, our focus is if we can fly to places where bilaterals permit, where our aircraft can go, where there is business, where there is stability, where there is economic stability, where people want to go, can we develop and cultivate markets, such as this one (Indonesia).” “This stems from the fact that we have just started Nairobi a few days ago. On August 7, we all came to Jakarta, and on August 8 we start off Tbilisi in Georgia followed by Baku, followed by Almaty and Tashkent, and the reinstatement of Hong Kong. Many of these places remained unexplored by the average Indian traveler. We are trying to provide opportunities for people to go to these unique destinations. Because people have been there done that to a whole lot of regular places.” IndiGo launched services to Jakarta in Indonesia on August 7. (IndiGo) “Look at the opportunity that is available there. I always like to state this fact that another important ingredient for traveling overseas is a passport. 100 million Indians have a passport which is close to 7.3 percent out of 1.4 billion of us. Even if this exceeds or increases by one percent, we are adding fourteen million eligible foreign travelers. Cut that to half, you are looking at seven million in a year. Look at the scope that is available. Not just for us but for any airline to take people to these places.” AirInsight - A small follow-up. There seems to be a very conscious Central Asia push, like you just talked about from Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Baku, Tbilisi, Tashkent, and Almaty, so is that a region that you want to focus on? Vinay Malhotra – “I wouldn't say that. I mean, from that perspective, earlier, it was the Middle East. It's not as if we are going region by region but as and when we receive more aircraft, as and when we develop more markets, as and when we find opportunities where people from India can travel we do that. Currently, also, it's not just CIS we have also started Nairobi. Soon there will be Hong Kong once again.” AirInsight - India is getting into a duopoly with IndiGo and the Air India Group enjoying the majority of the market share. How good do you think this is for the consumer and the industry? Vinay Malhotra – “I think India is a very fascinating aviation marketplace. Yes, there have been players going up and down. But if you see we have a huge potential as a country and a market. IndiGo has continued to focus on letting us try and connect as many people to as many places as possible. There is huge untapped potential.” “We spoke about international travel with the number of passports that exist in the country. If you look at domestic travel, I think statistics say that seven-odd percent of the total population is currently traveling by air. There is enough room for everyone. Competition is always healthy and welcome. But overall, I think every player must continue to focus and live on their own strengths.” AirInsight - How is your fleet mix going to be going ahead? You have about 1.000 aircraft that are yet to come in. The new 500 aircraft signed at the Paris Airshow order seems to include options for A321XLRs as well. Vinay Malhotra – “If you read all articles, at every step it's clearly mentioned that we are open to all kinds of options for the future. As for the XLR, we should expect them towards the end of the next fiscal year (FY25). The idea is then to focus on a whole lot of new points where currently people need to travel with a one-stop connection.” AirInsight - These would essentially be Europe and the Far East. Vinay Malhotra – “The aircraft is capable of flying distances over seven hours. Where we will go is still in the planning stage. Besides, our Chief Executive Officer Pieter Elbers mentioned at the IATA AGM in Turkey that we could look at the likes of Tel Aviv or Korea.” AirInsight - Everybody wants to know when are you going to have transatlantic flights. Vinay Malhotra – “In the current scheme of things, we have attempted to have people travel to the US. We have seven very close codeshare partnerships. One of those bilateral codeshare partnerships is with Turkish Airlines. Under the Turkish codeshare, we can carry or transport passengers to 33 points in Europe, four points in the US and one point now in North Africa, Casablanca in Morocco.” Indigo's network as of June 2023. Since then, this has grown to 108 destinations. (IndiGo) “We are very happy with the kind of bookings that we have started carrying beyond Istanbul to the US from students to leisure travelers. We are opening tier two and tier three in the country, for them to have easy, efficient, effective, convenient connections even to the US and not only Europe.” AirInsight - But if you talk about the potential and the response that we have seen, how far-fetched would it be to think that probably a few years down the line IndiGo would have its own service from India to say, New York? Vinay Malhotra – “I think it's too premature to talk about us flying Transatlantic or Trans-Pacific at this point in time.” AirInsight - The Boeing 777s wet-leased from Turkish right now are only flying to Istanbul. Are you looking at other destinations which are Ultra Long Haul? Vinay Malhotra – “Currently, we are flying from Delhi to Istanbul and Mumbai to Istanbul. These are both nonstop Boeing 777 aircraft. We have 524 seats from Delhi and Mumbai every day and we are satisfactorily carrying people with good load factors to Europe and US and now we will to North Africa.” AirInsight - Will the Turkish Boeing 777s be used for other long-haul destinations? Vinay Malhotra – “They are Turkey-leased aircraft so they will fly to Turkey.” AirInsight - IndiGo is said to be evaluating the Boeing 787 and the Airbus A330neo. By when can a decision be expected? Vinay Malhotra – “I am definitely not involved in this decision-making.” AirInsight - But given the fact that you are the head of international sales…. Vinay Malhotra – “This is a question I think we can answer at the right time.” AirInsight - How is international to international passenger traffic grown for IndiGo? Vinay Malhotra – “I wouldn't be able to give you figures. Earlier, we weren't really flying eastwards and westwards the way we are today. So naturally, those numbers on us at least wouldn't have existed. But from the numbers that I see, and we analyze, it's very promising. And even numbers in certain sectors are not skyrocketing at the moment. There is scope for them to grow because a lot of people in the Middle East are looking at travel via India to the Far East. People in Bangladesh via India to say, Saudi Arabia.” IndiGo is operating two wet-leased Boeing 777s in full livery from Turkish Airlines. Vinay Malhotra is unwilling to say if IndiGo will purchase its own widebodies. (IndiGo) AirInsight - Within Southeast Asia, there are other markets as well which have an Indian diaspora, a lot of Indian workers as well, for instance, there's no direct service between India and the Philippines at present, and a lot of Indians are in the Philippines. Is this on your radar? Vinay Malhotra – “We are always looking for opportunities where we can fly next. A couple of years ago, we may not have looked at Jakarta. Today, here we are. So as and when we progress as more aircraft come in and when more bilaterals open up we are always looking for opportunities.” AirInsight - Given that Go First has gone down, what kind of an uptick have you seen in passengers and flights? Vinay Malhotra – “There's a small percentage, closer to fifteen odd percent, where our flights overlapped with that of Go First of all the routes where we flew and where we fly and it didn’t. Did we gain a few passengers or some share? Yes, we did. But it's only in that range because the rest of the sectors it wasn’t flying on.” AirInsight - So you're saying fifteen percent of the routes….. Vinay Malhotra – “I'm saying fifteen percent of our routes overlap with them. We have gained some percentage, couldn't have been all great.”

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