IndiGo is India’s largest airline in terms of fleet size and market share. The airline currently has more than 350 planes in its fleet, which covers 122 destinations. IndiGo has placed its first ever widebody order for the Airbus A350. They have ordered 30 Airbus A350-900s with Rolls Royce Trent XWB engines, which are expected to arrive from 2027. 

Let’s go ahead and learn more about this big news coming from the Indian aviation industry. 

IndiGo: History Of India’s Largest Airline

IndiGo started its operations back in 2006 under the parent organization of Interglobe Aviation as a private company. It was headed by Rahul Bhatia and Rakesh Gangwal. They started with the Airbus A320-200, which primarily served in a full economy configuration, specially designed for the Indian low cost airline market.

IndiGo mainly focused on providing the cheapest tickets with good hospitality, management and marketing. The focus on low cost travel created popularity for IndiGo among Indian customers. The airline became the third largest in India with a passenger share of 17% in 2010. In 2011, IndiGo placed the largest ever aircraft order by any private airline in India, with 180 A320s on the order list. 

IndiGo had more than 50 aircraft in 2012, which was pretty amazing as the airline just started its operations six years ago. Finally, on August 17, 2012, IndiGo became the largest airline in India in terms of passenger market share. In 2014, IndiGo became the second largest low cost airline in Asia. 

In August 2015, IndiGo placed the largest ever Airbus A320 order in India, with 250 units being ordered. This was also the largest order in history for Airbus SE, as 250 aircraft were never ordered before by any airline in the world. In the same year, IndiGo went public and announced shares of Rs 2.3 lakh crore on the Indian stock market.

In October 2019, IndiGo set another record-breaking landmark in the history of aviation. They placed a firm order for 300 Airbus A320neo family aircraft, which shook the aviation industry around the world. It was the largest airline order ever from any company. IndiGo became the giant of low-cost airline travel in the world. They were now the largest low-cost airline in the world.

IndiGo became the first airline in India to have more than 300 planes in its fleet. The next airplane order by IndiGo for Airbus A320neo aircraft made them famous across the world for the massive quantity of planes inked in the deal. IndiGo ordered 500 Airbus A320neo family aircraft in February 2023, which was the largest aircraft order in the aviation industry till date.

IndiGo’s Airbus A350-900 Order

The latest news comes from the house of IndiGo, which announced their order for 30 Airbus A350-900 aircraft. On April 25, they ordered 30 A350s, which will be the first ever widebody to join IndiGo’s fleet. The move comes naturally, as Airbus has been trying to push the widebody product into the Indian aviation market. 

As Air India has also purchased A350s from Airbus this year, the training and familiarization process won’t be hard to set up in India for Airbus.

With the option to purchase 70 more, IndiGo has made it clear that they have plans to open international low-cost routes in the future. No low-cost airline operates in the long-haul and ultra-long-haul sectors from India. IndiGo is definitely going to deploy the A350s on those routes. This will be helpful for Indians working in western countries to find a cheap ticket.

The Airbus A350-900 for IndiGo is expected to be configured with at least 400 seats, as the airline has no business class offerings. Plus, the planes will be fitted with Rolls Royce Trent XWB engines that will be good for fuel efficiency. The deliveries are expected to begin in 2027 and extend into 2035. 

Why Did IndiGo Choose the Airbus A350 Over the 777X?

IndiGo has been a long time partner of Airbus and has enjoyed bulk order discounts as well. So naturally, IndiGo has no need to head to Boeing for aircraft orders, especially widebody ones. As Boeing is already suffering from issues like safety and quality control, IndiGo will most probably not opt for any Boeing product.

The Airbus A350 series is one of the safest aircraft in the world. Plus, there has never been a single incident in IndiGo’s flying history with Airbus planes. So, the future of IndiGo is only Airbus for now.

Conclusion

2023 was an amazing year for IndiGo, as they placed the largest ever aircraft order in the history of commercial aviation. The recent A350 order has proved that IndiGo has bigger plans for the future. IndiGo will use the A350-900s for long-haul and ultra-long-haul routes in India. It will be interesting to see how many seats IndiGo will be fitting in those aircraft.

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