IndiGo, the country’s largest low-cost carrier, will only fly to short-haul international destinations, within three-four hours flying range.“We will fly to destinations with a flying distance of three to four hours and not more than that. We do not plan to go long haul, as we have enough fish to fry in the short-haul routes,” said Rahul Bhatia, group managing director, InterGlobe Enterprises, the parent company of IndiGo.
Short-haul destinations may include countries in the Saarc (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) and Asean (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) regions, West Asia and China.
Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India are members of Saarc, while Asean inlcudes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
IndiGo will be eligible to fly international from next August, when it completes five years of flying in the domestic skies.
The Gurgaon-based carrier has a fleet of 28 Airbus A320 aircraft and operates 188 daily flights, connecting 22 destinations across the country. It enjoys a market share of 16.9 per cent. IndiGo, which had ordered 100 aircraft in 2005, has already received the delivery of 28 aircraft and will have seven more by the end of this calendar year.
