Rahul Bhatia’s Budget Airline IndiGo Maps New Path To Stay Ahead Of Competition
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October 14, 2024Forscher haben berechnet, wie kurz die Wege in 10.000 Städten weltweit sind
October 14, 2024With a fanatical focus on costs and efficiency, Rahul Bhatia built his single-class, budget carrier IndiGo into India’s largest domestic airline with a market share of over 60%.
This story appears in the October 2024 issue of Forbes Asia. Subscribe to Forbes Asia Rahul Bhatia (left), managing director of IndiGo, and Guillaume Faury, chief executive officer of Airbus SE. This story is part of Forbes’ coverage of India’s Richest 2024. See the full list here. With a fanatical focus on costs and efficiency, Rahul Bhatia built his single-class, budget carrier IndiGo into India’s largest domestic airline with a market share of over 60%. On IndiGo’s 18th anniversary in August, Bhatia, managing director of the listed airline’s parent, InterGlobe Aviation, announced that it was making “a departure from the past” by introducing what it has so far shunned: more leg room and frequent flier frills. ss From November, the airline is set to launch a business class section (IndiGo Stretch) on busy domestic routes, starting with the Delhi-Mumbai sector. Also, for the first time, IndiGo introduced a loyalty program (IndiGo BlueChip), an offering, which Bhatia once disclosed to Forbes, “only adds to costs.” While analysts say competition from the Tata group-owned, full-service carrier Air India could be one reason, Bhatia maintained at the press briefing that “what was valid ten years ago, no longer is. Customers in India deserve a choice.” The Canada-trained electrical engineer returned home in 1984 to set up a telecom venture but got pulled into his father Kapil Bhatia’s travel business. He set up IndiGo with U.S.-based airline veteran Rakesh Gangwal. The partners went on to become billionaires before they fell out. Gangwal resigned from the board and decided to sell his stake in stages. After racking up losses due to the pandemic, IndiGo turned in a $980 million net profit in the year ended March.
