IndiGo becomes first Indian airline to carry 100 million passengers a year

IndiGo, the airline operated by InterGlobe Aviation Ltd, has become the first Indian airline to carry 100 million passengers in a single year, the company said.

The airline, India’s largest by passenger traffic, joins a select club of global carriers to operate at such a scale.

IndiGo, which marked its 17th anniversary this year, has also become one of the fastest airlines to reach the landmark figure.

The new milestone translates to a 22% year-on-year increase in passenger traffic for 2023, the airline said. Last year, the airline carried 78 million passengers, slightly above pre-covid levels.

“This milestone is a validation of our strategy, which has been executed so diligently. At IndiGo, we are proud to give wings to the nation, by connecting people and aspirations for the past 17 years, making air travel accessible for hundreds of millions of Indians,” Pieter Elbers, chief executive officer at IndiGo, said.

The airline has charted a strategy to double in size and scale by the end of this decade, and to drive these ambitions, it placed a historic order of 500 aircraft with Airbus this year. This order was in addition to the more than 450 aircraft orders that it had placed earlier.

The airline, which flies to 118 destinations that includes 32 international locations, had earlier become the first Indian airline to operate more than 2,000 flights a day.

It currently operates a fleet of about 330 aircraft and counts among the top 10 largest airlines in the world by passenger traffic.

In the past 6 months, IndiGo has added more than 20 new international routes to its network, while strengthening domestic connectivity.

Over the next few months, the airline said it plans to add destinations like Bali in Indonesia, and Medina in Saudi Arabia to its network.