China key focus in IndiGo's international expansion spree

Budget carrier IndiGo will aggressively focus on China and other Southeast Asian nations to boost the airline's international network, a top company official said. IndiGo has launched services to four destinations in China and Vietnam in the last one month alone.

"We are focused on growing our services in China and Southeast Asia, as well as in the Middle East. We see that India-China access is becoming one of the very important set of routes to operate," William Boulter, Chief Commercial Officer, IndiGo, told PTI in Ho Chi Minh City.

The company inaugurated operations in China with the Delhi-Chengdu service on September 15. Flights on the the Kolkata-Guangzhou route were launched on October 20. It is likely to fly to another destination in that country "early next year", the senior company official said.

READ | IndiGo Plane Aborts Take-off At Nagpur Airport, Nitin Gadkari And Other Passengers Deplaned Safely

"We are looking at some of the destinations in China where there is less competitive capacity, like Guangzhou and Chengdu..." Boulter said. He added that IndiGo expects China to be a large contributor to its international network going ahead.

India's largest airline with around 50 per cent share in the domestic passenger market, also launched direct flights to Vietnam's Hanoi (October 3) and Ho Chi Minh City (October 18) from Kolkata.

Expanding the carrier's presence in the Middle East, IndiGo had inaugurated services in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia from Delhi on October 12, making it the second destination in the Kingdom following Jeddah.

"We expect near-full occupancy for the new destinations in the next six-eight months, which is the usual gestation period when foraying into new markets," Boulter said. 

READ | DGCA Suspends 2 Indigo Pilots For 3 Months Over Runway Incursion

READ | IndiGo Promoter Feud: Rahul Bhatia & IGE Enterprises Seek Arbitration