An hour before announcing its Q4 earnings on Thursday evening, Indian aviation's market leader IndiGo announced it was finally going to offer a business class.
The low-cost airline which controls more than 60% market share of India's rapidly expanding commercial air travel market has so far had a single configuration, economy class, for its no-frills offering, with value-adds like food and beverages, extra leg space, priority baggage etc all available at a price.
"As India gears up to become the third largest economy in the world, it's our privilege to provide new India even more options to choose from as they travel business," said Indigo CEO Pieter Elbers. "We are excited with this new phase and tailor-made product in Indigo's evolution and strategy," he added.
According to an official note, the new 'tailor-made business product' will be available on the busiest business routes of the nation. Further details were not offered, with an official note saying details will be revealed on the airline's birthday in August, with the service set to be operational before the end of the year.
It was also not clear whether the business class configuration would be available simultaneously on international routes as well. Indigo has on order several hundreds of new aircraft, with many of them set to do long-haul routes to Europe and even beyond once they arrive. In an interaction with THE WEEK late last year, Elbers had hinted at the possibility of adding Business Class service on Indigo, though at that time he had said that it was yet to be decided.
“The exact configuration of new aircraft on order (all economy or a mix of economy class and business class) will have some impact on the range (depending on) whether you have 230 passengers or 190. We have the flexibility to decide on the exact number of (Airbus A321) XLRs (which Indigo had on order for international flights beyond the Middle East or Southeast Asia. Since then, the airline had ordered big-bodied models like the Airbus A350 as well, as many as 30 of them, just for starters,” he said.
