Why Indigo survived while Air India fumbled

Air India vs. Indigo is a favorite case study in management schools. In 2004, when Air-India was piling up aircraft with a capex of around Rs 38,000 core, its private sector competitor Indigo was entering into long-term contracts with Airbus Industries so that deliveries could be staggered into the future to suit its needs.

A long term contract not only protects the price line for the buyer even if it contains a price escalation clause but also ensures that equipment, grounded or flying, are not piled up unnecessarily. There cannot be a greater waste for a commercial organization than unused capacity.

An army man can rest in his barracks but an aircraft cannot be made to idle in its hangar.

IndiGo Joins Fare War with All-Time Low Fares from Rs 999

It is raining discounts for air travelers in India with more airlines joining the fare war. Budget carrier IndiGo has come up with a promotional scheme with fares starting from an all-inclusive Rs. 999. This promotional offer is available on bookings of 90 days or more in advance of the travel date.
This offer from IndiGo comes just a week after the airline had announced a promotional offer a week ago in which prices started from Rs. 1,887.

New Offer: Book IndiGo flight tickets at Rs 999

Bangalore: After its biggest competitor SpiceJet, IndiGo too has announced a latest offer on its flight tickets. The airline announced its flight tickets at Rs 999. IndiGo on Tuesday, Sept 2 announced that the scheme will have fares starting from an all-inclusive Rs 999. This promotional offer is available on bookings of 90 days or more in advance of the travel date. Earlier IndiGo had come with offer which allowed air travellers to buy a ticket of its domestic flight at Rs 1,887. However, the previous offer was launched for limited periods.

Indigo to launch daily direct flight between Vizag and Delhi

New Delhi:  IndiGo is to start a direct daily flight between Vizag and Delhi and a third daily flight between Vizag and Hyderabad from October 10.

The decision to start the flights, which will see IndiGo consolidate its position as the largest operator from Vizag with seven daily departures, was announced following a meeting with Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and Civil Aviation Minister Raju here on Tuesday.

40 senior pilots quit IndiGo in one year

Mumbai: Low-cost carrier IndiGo, whose market share dropped by a per cent in July to 30.7, has also lost as many as 40 commanders or senior pilots mainly to Gulf carriers in the last one year.

While most of these commanders quit the airline for better prospects, some of them also parted ways due to the work culture, sources in the Gurgaon-based airline told PTI.

"Around 40 commanders have parted ways with the airline over the past one year as most of them got lucrative offers from Gulf carriers," a source said.
Text messages sent to IndiGo president Aditya Ghosh and airline's PR agency for a comment on the issue did not yield any response.

IndiGo to take 12 planes on lease from Tigerair

New Delhi: Airlines in India are sprucing up their arsenal to take on the soon-to-intensify competition in the domestic sky with the entry of new carriers.

IndiGo, India's largest airline in terms of domestic carriage, is taking on lease two planes every month from Singapore-based Tigerair from October to next March — which means adding 12 new planes to its current fleet of 79 by the end of this fiscal.

Following IndiGo’s footsteps: Why Raju asked Air India to ground older air hostesses

New Delhi:  IndiGo is being used as a benchmark for getting Air India back to black. Sources in the Ministry of Civil Aviation said today that recent instructions to Air India on grounding older air hostesses and improving on-time performance were given after a careful study of these parameters at IndiGo. How is the age of air hostesses related to profitability?

Well, these sources pointed out that older cabin crew "get slower" and this affects aircraft turnaround (time taken to get aircraft ready for next flight). "We looked at IndiGo. They have young crew and their turnaround time is 25 minutes whereas for Air India, this gets done in 45 minutes. We need to lower the age of crew to be able to bring in efficiencies," these sources said.

Foreign deportee escapes from IGI Airport, airlines security officials blamed

New Delhi: A foreigner, deported from Singapore due to insufficient documents, managed to escape from IndiGo's security officials' custody on Monday.

According to an official of the Delhi Police, the accused was supposed to be deported to Colombia, but due to negligence of IndiGo officials he went away. The Delhi Police registered a case under Passport Act. While cops are analysing CCTV footages, the foreigner is yet to be traced, police said.

According to an immigration official, it was a major negligence from IndiGo's side as accused was supposed to be deported to Colombia and he was in transit. Later, Foreigner Regional Registration Offices (FRRO) gave a written complaint to the Delhi Police quoting negligence done by IndiGo officials.

IndiGo is the largest, most reliable domestic airline

IndiGo emerged as the best Indian airline in terms of reliability and punctuality, according to data released last month by  Flightstats.com, based on the top 20 domestic routes per airline between May 15 and July 15.

IndiGo tops in all three parameters that the website used to evaluate the airlines: the percentage of flights that were on time, the average delay and the number of flights diverted or cancelled.

The airline has many satisfied customers on Twitter. “On time (never failed me), decent food, fun branding, great service," tweeted @SpinAndSwirl on July 29.
SpiceJet comes last on two parameters and in the middle in the third, as seen in the charts above. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation asked the airline on July 28 to refund the full fares and Rs 15,000 worth of food and drinks it sold to passengers when one of its flights was delayed by almost five hours.

DGCA issues notices to 22 ex-Indigo pilots for not serving notice period

Aviation regulator DGCA issued showcause notices to 22 former Indigo pilots who have left the airlines without serving their mandatory notice periods after quitting and has also warned them that they could face cancellation of their licenses.
According to a CNN-IBN report, these pilots have been given a 15-day period to respond to the notice. The pilots have to inform DGCA why their licenses should not be cancelled, considering they didn't serve the 6-month notice period.

FIPB gives conditional nod to IndiGo's FDI proposal

New Delhi: FIPB on Friday gave conditional approval to the proposal of InterGlobe Aviation which would pave the way for fresh foreign direct investment in private air carrier IndiGo.

"IndiGo's proposal has been cleared subject to approval of High Court," an official said after a meeting of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) headed by Finance Secretary Arvind Mayaram.

InterGlobe Aviation is the holding company of IndiGo.

As per the proposal, equity holding of IndiGo's promoter Rakesh Gangwal through Caelum

Investments will be classified as NRI investment and free the FDI limit for fresh investment.

InterGlobe seeks FIPB nod for foreign funding in IndiGo

New Delhi:  InterGlobe Aviation — the parent company of IndiGo, India's largest airline by domestic carriage — has sought Foreign Investment Promotion Board's (FIPB) nod for possible funding ahead of its proposed initial public offer.

The move comes even as several foreign airlines such as Qatar Airways had evinced interest in buying into the airline. The company's matter is listed for discussion for FIPB's meeting next Friday.

Indian Carrier IndiGo Said to Select Banks for $400 Million IPO

InterGlobe Aviation Pvt., which operates Indian budget carrier IndiGo, has chosen banks for an initial public offering next year that could raise about $400 million, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Citigroup Inc. (C), JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley will lead the offering, which may value the company at about $3 billion, the people said. Deutsche Bank AG, Kotak Mahindra Capital Co. and Standard Chartered Plc are also working on the share sale, one of the people said, asking not to be identified as the matter is private.

India’s biggest domestic carrier by market share is seeking a listing as it faces new competition from AirAsia Bhd. (AIRA), whose local venture started operations last month. Over the past seven years, the country’s airlines have lost an average $22 every time a passenger stepped on board, according to estimates from CAPA Center for Aviation.

Budget carriers SpiceJet, IndiGo and GoAir roll out another sale offer starting at Rs 1,699

Mumbai: Domestic budget carriers SpiceJet, IndiGo and GoAir today rolled out another sale offer with fares starting from Rs 1,699 for a limited period on domestic routes.

The travel period for the three-day sale, which commences from today, will remain valid between August 18 and September 30.

"Indian travellers have reason to rejoice this monsoon season with a new airfare sale valid for closer dates of travel - August and September this year. SpiceJet has announced fares starting Rs 1,999, while IndiGo sales start at Rs 1,699 for select sectors," travel portal MakeMyTrip co-founder and chief executive for India Rajesh Magow said here.

IndiGo to add 12 new domestic flights

No-frills airline IndiGo today said it will add 12 new flights in its domestic network, that include a second daily non-stop flight between Mumbai and Indore and a fourth daily non-stop flight between Delhi and Pune.

Of these, four services will be operational from tomorrow while the remaining eight flights are scheduled to take off next month, IndiGo said in a release here.

The Gurgaon-based carrier will be operating 516 daily flights, connecting 36 domestic and overseas destinations with a fleet of 79 aircraft.

Indian A-320 fleet to undergo major maintenance at Mattala

No-frill carrier IndiGo’s Airbus A-320 fleet will now on undergo major maintenance checks in the hangars of SriLankan Airlines in Hambantota.
An agreement to this effect was signed between SriLankan and IndiGos parent company, InterGlobe Aviation Limited, to enable the Indian carrier’s fleet of 78 A-320s undergo checks by SriLankan’s Engineering Division at the country’s second international airport, Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (MRIA) in Hambantota, a SriLankan release said. A check is performed every 20 to 24 months or a specific amount of actual flight hours or as defined by the manufacturer.
This extensive check requires a large majority of the components to be inspected in a hangar, thus putting the aircraft out of service for almost two weeks.

Air India, Indigo flights avoid collision by seconds

Bagdogra: Two passenger flights came within seconds of a collision 30,000ft over Bagdogra this afternoon before both pilots changed course in the nick of time.
IndiGo’s Bagdogra-Delhi flight with 131 passengers on board made a sharp descent while Air India’s Delhi-Bagdogra flight turned right, airport sources said.
Two aircraft can come dangerously close either because of a lapse by a pilot or air traffic control, or because of a communication problem. What contributed to the near-collision today will only be clear after a probe.
Both pilots received alerts through the traffic collision avoidance system (TCAS), a software installed in aircraft that warns the pilot when another plane comes too close.
IndiGo’s Flight 6E 472 had taken off from Bagdogra at 12.22pm and was cleared by air traffic control to climb to 30,000 feet, an official said.

IndiGo Said in Talks With Airbus on $20.6 Billion Order

IndiGo is talking to Airbus Group NV (AIR) about an order for 200 additional A320neo jets valued at about $20.6 billion as India’s biggest domestic airline taps rising travel demand, people familiar with the plans said.

The purchase may be announced as early as next week’s Farnborough International Airshow in England, said two of the people, who asked not to be identified because the details are private. While IndiGo has talked with Boeing Co. (BA:US), the airline’s preference is to stick with Airbus, the people said.

IndiGo to park four planes at Nagpur airport

Nagpur: Low cost carrier IndiGo has decided to start using Nagpur's Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport as the base for four of its aircraft and park them overnight in the city. It will become the first airline to do so once it starts using the parking bays from January 2015 providing a boost to local aviation scene.

It will begin with one aircraft in January and will add another three aircraft over the year. Senior airport director P Anil Kumar said, "We got the intimation from the airline that they want to use four parking bays as base for their aircraft. We have already given all clearances required."

IndiGo revives IPO plans after a gap of four years

Mumbai: After a gap of four years, InterGlobe Enterprises, the company that owns IndiGo, India’s biggest airline by market share, has revived plans to launch an initial public offering (IPO) following improvement in market conditions after the induction of a new government at the Centre.

InterGlobe is believed to be in discussions with merchant bankers on the pricing and timing of the issue, though the management has not made any announcement in this regard. IndiGo did not respond to a query.

The size of the issue is expected to be $400 million, the same amount of money the company was planning to raise through an IPO in the first-half of 2010. The low-cost airline was launched in the second-half of 2006 and since then has emerged as the fastest growing airline in India.