The Hindu : Business : IndiGo to fly from Aug. 4

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Aug 01, 2006

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Business

IndiGo to fly from Aug. 4

Special Correspondent

The maiden flight will be on the Delhi-Guwahati sector

Photo: V. V. Krishnan

GET SET, GO!: (from left): President and CEO, Bruce Ashby, and founders Rahul Bhatia and Rakesh Gangwal, at the launch of IndiGo Airlines in New Delhi on Monday.

NEW DELHI: Embarking upon ambitious plans of carrying five lakh passengers by this year-end with a fleet of six Airbus A-320 aircraft, the latest entrant in the Indian skies, IndiGo, on Monday announced the launch of its inaugural flight on August 4.

"By the end of this year we will have six Airbus A-320 aircraft operating to 12 destinations. Our aim is to have a total of 15 aircraft by the end of next year and carry 35 lakh passengers with over 25,000 departures,'' IndiGo President and CEO Bruce Ashby said here while announcing the launch of the revenue operations of the airline.

He said the airline's maiden flight would be operated on the Delhi-Guwahati sector with introductory one-way fares starting from Rs. 2,594. The low cost carrier, which had announced earlier orders of 100 aircraft from Airbus over a period of ten years, is taking the loan and equity route to finance the acquisition of its first six aircraft.

"We have got loans from GE Finance and part of the fund will also come from equity,'' IndiGo co-founder Rakesh Gangwal said. He said the promoters were not looking for any dilution of their stakes at the moment.

Mr. Ashby said the airline would introduce a new A-320-232 aircraft every month during the remainder of this year.

"With our first four aircraft we will serve Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Nagpur and Pune,'' he said. IndiGo would add nine more aircraft by December 2007. The airline's non-stop daily Delhi-Bangalore flights would start by the end of August, he added.

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