IndiGo's V Sumantran Says India Becoming Convenient Hub For Travel Between Asia, Middle East

India is slowly becoming a convenient hub for travel between Southeast Asia and the Middle East as airlines prefer to transfer people by connecting through Indian cities, a top industry official said. There is huge growth in India and many domestic routes are used by airlines for connectivity, V Sumantran, chairman of the board of directors of InterGlobe Aviation Ltd. said in Chennai on Saturday.

Delivering his address at the 65th Institute Day of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, he said that IndiGo airlines started off as a low-cost airline in 2006 and has made the largest single order in the aviation industry by ordering 500 aircrafts in France.

"India needed an airline that will provide affordable travel for many of us and the net result we can see. Even now, we see India really moving forward with a lot more speed on infrastructure development. We have about 140 operating airports now and that would become 220 by 2030. We are seeing a huge increase in regional travel," Sumantran, an IIT-Madras alumni, said.

IndiGo is a very young airline by global airline standards. But the entire platform of IndiGo has been affordable fares, courteous service, on-time performance, and a "very well networked" route system which India needed, he said.

Citing an example that a lot of airlines were transferring people from places like Bangkok via India to reach Jeddah or Dubai in the Middle East by connecting through Indian cities, he said, "India is slowly becoming a convenient hub for travel between South East Asia and the Middle East."

"So, there is huge growth that we can see coming out of this which has boldly allowed us to place an order of 500 aircraft that is the single largest aircraft order ever made in aviation history," he said.

Maintaining that IndiGo has the largest network of women pilots in the world, he said the amount of carbon dioxide emission per-seat-per-kilometer was also the lowest in the world by the airline.

"We (IndiGo) now find ourselves as the third most valuable airline in the world, after Ryan Air and Delta (Air Lines). We were able to earn our place among the biggest and most valuable airlines in the world. The message here is India can offer lessons on how to grow with responsibility—achieve more with less and secondly, well before 2047, many of our enterprises can be globally successful," he said.