IndiGo premium push: 45 aircraft with biz class by 2026Untitled Story

Buoyed by the response to its premium class product, ‘IndiGoStretch’, India’s largest airline IndiGo, now plans to expand its business class product to about 45 aircraft by 2026, the airline told Mint. 

IndiGo is currently implementing a phased rollout of IndiGoStretch, which was announced in August this year and the roll out started in November. 

“Over the next 14 months, we will introduce 45 IndiGoStretch aircraft, expanding service to 12 routes with a frequency of over 260 daily flights”, IndiGo said in an email response to Mint’s query.

Currently, IndiGoStretch is offered in Delhi to Mumbai flights and as per the airline, by early January 2025, all Delhi-Mumbai flights will feature IndiGoStretch. This will be followed by full integration on the Delhi-Bengaluru and Delhi-Chennai routes by March 2025. The airline offers its premium class product on xx Airbus 321 aircraft, where xx economy seats have been removed to add  x business class seats. 

With this expansion, IndiGo is estimated to be offering premium capacity in about 10% of its total fleet by then. The airline has a fleet size of about 410 aircraft as on September 30th and is expected to grow to over 450 aircraft by around 2026. 

Air India Group says it will have about 94 aircraft with Business Class cabins by June 2025 – a large number of it would be used for international flights. 

As per an aviation expert, the lack of footrest IndiGoStretch does not offer full comfort to passengers. Ajay Prakash, President of Travel Agents Association of India (TAFI) said, “With the current seat IndiGo will face a challenge as it lacks a footrest at the moment, it would have made the seat comfortable. The Domestic air traffic is booming, we’ve been carrying a record number of pax, don’t foresee a big problem in filing these seats once they have a more extensive sort of coverage.”

Prakash said there is a demand for business class for sure, but will IndiGo’s premium foray will be good for the airline or not, it’s early to say anything. He added, “Too early to say anything about IndiGoStretch as it’s only one sector and a few flights. Until service expands, we will be in a better position to assess, but there is demand for sure.”

The business class foray by IndiGo is intended to provide a premium class product alternative to fliers. The premium class market is dominated by the Air India Group after Vistara merged with Air India. The merged entity offers business class and premium economy seats on its aircraft and plans to offer it on key metro routes. 

Air India Express – the low frills entity from the group – offers business class capacity but may not continue with it in the future. AI Express has business class capacity on aircraft that were intended for another airline but were delivered to AI express after the other airline refused to take deliveries. Such aircraft in aviation parlance are termed white tail aircraft. 

With reduction in business class capacity, premium class fares on key routes have seen a surge too, industry watchers say. 

Indigo seems to have encashed in on the surge and the airline said that the initial reception of IndiGoStretch has been very positive which aligns with its projected performance indicators.

“Forward booking trends are encouraging and as we expand IndiGoStretch across key business routes, we anticipate increased market awareness and continued strong demand. We are well-positioned to accommodate this anticipated demand,” the airline said in the response. 

IndiGoStretch made its debut on 14th November when the first aircraft conducted the first flight on Delhi to Mumbai route. Currently IndiGo operates 10 daily flights featuring IndiGoStretch between Delhi and Mumbai. 

While an average IndiGoStretch tickets start from ₹18,000, Air India’s business class seats starts from ₹21,000.