Budget carrier IndiGo announced its entry into business travel on its 18th anniversary as India’s largest airline looks to improve customer experience of busy domestic routes.
Ticket bookings for IndiGo's business service ‘Stretch’ will open for sale from August 6, 2024, on the Delhi-Mumbai sector, starting from mid-November at a price of ₹18,018.
IndiGo Stretch cabin will feature 12 seats in a 2-2 configuration. The seats come with a six-way adjustable headrest with neck support, 5 inch deep recline, electronic device holder, 60-watt USB-Type C power supply, and a three-pin universal power outlet.
Business flyers will also enjoy a host of benefits such as no convenience fee, curated vegetarian meal box from Oberoi Catering Services, beverages, and advance seat selection at no additional charge along with priority check-in and anytime boarding.
This will be followed by a gradual scale-up and product will operate on most of the Metro-to-Metro routes, with all 12 routes expected to be served by the end of 2025, 12 months after introduction.
IndiGo also announced the launch of its much-awaited loyalty programme, ‘IndiGo BluChip’, designed to reward its frequent flyers.
“IndiGo is embarking on a new path of its incredible growth story by introducing a tailor-made business product on the nation’s busiest and business routes. With India’s soaring economy and the evolving aspirations of the Indian society, we believe it’s time for IndiGo to redefine business class in India, increasing availability of this service for the nation. IndiGo Stretch will provide our customers the ontime performance and hassle-free and courteous experience they can expect from us, while adding more space and increased priority at a great value for money,” says Pieter Elbers, CEO, IndiGo.
“We have also launched a completely refreshed website and app with several features to make our customers experience more hassle-free,” adds Elbers.
With its fleet of over 350 aircraft, the airline is operating around 2000 daily flights and connecting over 85 domestic destinations and 33 international destinations. The low-cost carrier will add Jaffna as its 34th international destination. It plans to add another six overseas destinations later this financial year.
IndiGo placed the largest-ever single aircraft order of 500 airplanes with Airbus last year as it aims to double its size by the end of the decade. IndiGo, which corners around 60% domestic market share, is looking to add at least 1 aircraft every week.
Net profit of IndiGo parent InterGlobe Aviation fell 11.7% year-on-year to ₹2,728 crore for the quarter ended June as higher fuel and other expenses weighed on strong air travel demand. Revenue from operations rose 17.3% to ₹19,570 crore in the first quarter compared with ₹16,683.1 crore in the same quarter last year.
IndiGo's total expenses jumped 24% to ₹17,449 crore in the June quarter, with aircraft fuel expenses at ₹6,416 crore, up 22.7% compared to ₹5,228 crore in the year-ago period. Jet fuel constitutes around 40% of the running cost of an airline. Its aircraft and engine rental costs more than trebled to ₹624 crore in Q1 FY25. The budget airline’s load factor, or the passenger carrying capacity being utilised, declined 1.9 percentage points to 86.7% for the June quarter.
