IndiGo ‘keen’ to fly further in Europe; Awaits 500 on-order planes

The deal to acquire 500 aircraft was made with Airbus which will allow the airline to fly to around 27 destinations in the continent.

IndiGo Airlines has announced an expansion plan to extend its services to the international section, including European destinations along with Turkey. In an interview, IndiGo's international sales head Vinay Malhotra told news agency ANI that a codeshare partnership with Turkish Airlines along with the pending order to acquire 500 aircrafts parts of this expansion plan.

Reports of IndiGo's past deal come days after the Tata Group-owned Air India made a purchase of 470 passenger aircrafts. (MINT_PRINT)

“We are currently flying over 300 aircraft and we have nearly 500 more on order. Of course, the expansion depends a lot on the frequency and the timing of when we get the aircraft,” Malhotra told ANI.

The deal to acquire 500 aircraft was made with the international manufacturer Airbus which will allow the airline to fly to 27 destinations in the continent. These locations are situated in nations including the UK, France, Italy, Ireland, Austria, Switzerland along with others. In order to make this work, IndiGo made a codeshare partnership with Turkish Airlines as their flights ‘have multiple frequencies’ to these points.

“With our partnership with them as a codeshare, we are able to carry passengers from India to Istanbul and from Istanbul to beyond,” Malhotra told ANI.

Reports of IndiGo's past deal come days after the Tata Group-owned Air India made a purchase of 470 passenger aircrafts from the same manufacturers along with 370 optional buys that would be procured over the next decade.

He said IndiGo currently operates around 1,800 flights daily with 10% of them on international routes. “The farthest we travel is to Turkey and Istanbul. We have been very keen to fly further and that's why a partnership with Turkish airlines,” he added.

Malhotra further announced that IndiGo will launch two new points – Nairobi and Jakarta – in near future.

(With ANI inputs)