IndiGo, Qatar Airways To Announce Strategic Deal; Shares Jump
IndiGo planning aggressive push to more international destinations IndiGo is India's largest airline with nearly 50% market share Qatar Airways has in past shown interest in investing in IndiGo
Shares in InterGlobe Aviation - the parent company of the budget airline IndiGo - jumped over 4 per cent on Tuesday. The rise in shares came after IndiGo and Qatar Airways said in a statement that they would make a strategic business announcement on November 7. IndiGo is planning an aggressive push to more international destinations and the airline's CEO Ronojoy Dutta and Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker will "talk about the vision and future for both the airlines", the statement added.
On the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), IndiGo shares rose as much as 4.64 per cent to an intraday high of Rs 1,502.70 apiece. On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), IndiGo shares opened marginally lower at Rs 1,502.70 apiece but changed direction and advanced to as high as Rs 1,503.00 apiece, marking an increase of 4.63 per cent.
Qatar has in the past shown interest in investing in IndiGo but the budget carrier has resisted. "We are very interested in IndiGo... We are talking to IndiGo of doing codeshare, joint flights but not yet an equity stake in the airline," the Qatar Airways CEO had told news agency Reuters in an interview in August.
At 12:03 pm, IndiGo shares traded 3.27 per cent higher at Rs 1,483 apiece on the BSE, outperforming the benchmark Sensex index which was down 0.24 per cent.
IndiGo is the country's largest carrier with a nearly 50 per cent share of the domestic market.
Last week, IndiGo placed a historic order for 300 Airbus A320neo-family planes, including the newest jet, a long-range version of the single-aisle A320neo family called the A321XLR. IndiGo flies to 60 international destinations including Turkey, China, Vietnam, Myanmar and Saudi Arabia which it has added earlier this year.
