Wave in air travel is yet to come, right now seeing only ripples, says Indigo’s CEO Rono Dutta

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KEY HIGHLIGHTS

IndiGo’s current market share stands at 58% – the highest ever.
Indian aviation space is expected to get competitive with the relaunch of Jet Airways and the entry of Akasa Airlines.

New Delhi: Ronojoy Dutta – the 71-year-old aviation veteran who runs the operations of India’s largest airline – believes that the underlying demand in the Indian aviation market is getting stronger. Currently, only 7% of the Indians are travelling and this will increase. According to him, the ‘wave in air travel is yet to come; right now we are seeing only ripples.’

Rono Dutta, who is retiring on September 30, helped IndiGo gain nearly 16 percentage points of market share. IndiGo’s current market share stands at 58% – the highest ever. However, the company’s focus does not remain on gaining market share, he believes that the company’s market share has been increasing because they provide the best services.

To beat the high fuel prices, airlines have been increasing ticket prices, which has led to a marginal decline in passenger load factor. And, IndiGo’s ‘happy’ about the same. India’s largest airline is fine with losing some load factor as long as unit revenue remains strong. In the month of April 2022, though air traffic has been lower compared to pre-covid levels, revenue has increased 12% compared to pre-covid levels.

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The Indian aviation space is expected to get competitive with the relaunch of Jet Airways and the entry of Akasa Airlines. Market experts believe there could be price wars to gain market share. But IndiGo does not expect competition to come and reduce yields (fares) and chase volumes. Given the current high-cost scenario, cutting fares is not the right way.

The airline board’s recent decision to appoint the current President and CEO of KLM, Pieter Elbers, as its CEO from October is also because IndiGo needed a CEO who could serve at least for 8-10 years, he added.

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