India's largest airline IndiGo's Chief Executive Officer Pieter Elbers said that a country as populous as India should have airlines representing the size of its economy.
"If you take a step back for a moment, and you see that the most populous nation on the planet, in fact, should have airlines representing the size of that population and the size of that economy," Elbers told NDTV in an interview, after the airline announced that it recorded the highest-ever revenue and profit in the June quarter.
The comment comes amid concerns that the domestic civil aviation market is heading towards a duopoly, with most of the market under the wings of IndiGo and an expanded Air India after Go First's insolvency.
The duopoly of InterGlobe Aviation Ltd., operator of IndiGo airline, and the Tata Group-owned airlines strengthened in June as their combined market share in the Indian aviation market neared 90%.
IndiGo has grown to capture 63.4% market share in June from 56.8% in April, the last month when Go First operated before filing for bankruptcy in early May.
Elbers said that it is a phase of transition in Indian aviation and the consolidation in the domestic market is similar to the global trend of the largest players thriving in a competitive market.
"These larger players need to be large in order to compete and in order to be able to compete with some of the mega carriers in the world," he said.
According to Elbers, the growth due to the combination of domestic network and a growing international network will help Indian airlines increase their "relatively limited" share in international traffic and have a sizable presence there.
The airline that recently placed commercial aviation history's largest order of 500 aircraft, reported profitability for the third consecutive quarter in the three-month period ended June.
The IndiGo CEO said the record passenger traffic levels in India is an example of one of the world's quickest post-pandemic recovery. The boom can no longer be credited to pent-up demand but to a growing Indian economy, he said.
Infrastructure Readiness
The airline, which is celebrating its 17th anniversary this week, targets to double in size and scale by the end of the decade. It currently has a fleet of over 310 aircraft and aims to carry 100 million passengers in the ongoing fiscal.
Elbers said the chicken-and-egg sort of situation related to whether investments should lead infrastructure development now stands resolved with thousands of aircraft on order.
"Rather than looking at each other, airports to airlines and airlines to airports; we have now a firm order book," he said. "It should give the airports confidence to start building and expanding."
The infrastructure development will help in the government's agenda to push Indian aviation to its "rightful place" in the global market, he said.
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