Last month the central government suspended the international scheduled commercial flights till September 30 in the face of an emerging threat of the third wave of Covid-19 infection. IndiGo is India’s largest private-sector airline and operates around 1,150 flights daily, of which 70-75 are on international routes, the rest being domestic flights.
On Tuesday, IndiGo CEO Ronojoy Dutta said, right now, it would be impractical to restart scheduled international flights. He further explained a much more secure solution to India’s aviation problem in the pandemic. The optimum way forward is to gradually increase the number of air bubble flights with various countries.
The Indian government suspended scheduled international passenger flights last year on March 23, 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, as immediate relief, since July 2020, special flights have been operating under bilateral “air bubble” arrangements between India and approximately 28 countries.
Dutta referred to the apparent health concerns saying, “which I won’t minimise in any way,” as many “countries are on different points of managing COVID-19.” He explained the other reason was “testing issues”, which are confusing for the passengers.
On May 15 last year, when India resumed its scheduled domestic flights after a two-month hiatus from the lockdown, airlines were permitted to operate at 33 per cent of their pre-Covid capacity on domestic flights. This cap got gradually increased and currently stands at 72.5 per cent.
Dutta stated he doesn’t think going for scheduled international services in one big bang would be practical.
Encouraging the protocol of slowly opening up as we did in domestic flights, Dutta claimed, “But I think this process of let has more and more bubble flights” and “increasing it is an excellent graduated way of opening up.
We did it domestically also, right?” he said. At the same time, referring to when India started from 33 per cent capacity, going to 50 and then with further increased capacity. “So, a graduated approach is a good approach”.
The intensely competitive Indian aviation industry
The IndiGo CEO said he is “very encouraged” by Jyotiraditya Scindia, India’s new civil aviation minister. The Rajya Sabha MP was appointed Civil Aviation Minister on July 7 with roots from Madhya Pradesh.
Dutta told the media, “He (Scindia) is taking a leadership position in addressing the concerns of the overall industry.” which makes the CEO hopeful for further developing the partnership between “the industry and the ministry” in an “up-and-coming trend.”
He listed at least three new potential entrants in the civil aviation industry. “One is the new Air India,” commenting it to be a formidable force in a post-pandemic sector. “From what I read in the newspapers, it is most likely going to Tatas.”
He said they will have “Air India, Vistara, AirAsia India -all in one -and they will be a formidable force in the market.”
Dutta also remarked that Akasa would also prove to be an intense competitor. Besides, there are talks of the revival of Jet Airways too, “So, we have a lot of competition,” he noted.
By September 15 this year, financial bids for Air India will likely be received from QIBs or Qualified Interested Bidders, said V K Singh, then Minister of State for Civil Aviation, in July.
The Centre invited the expression of Interest (EoI) for Air India on January 27, 2020. After multiple extensions due to the coronavirus pandemic, the last date of submission was December 14, 2020.
More countries need to open up
Ronojoy Dutta emphasised the need for other countries to open up too. “We want more and more countries to open up” (for the air bubble flights). He highlighted the opening up of the UAE and Doha (Qatar) to be good.
“Bangladesh just opened up, but only with a few flights,” Dutta mentioned. A few more countries like Thailand and Saudi Arabia need to be opened, he stated.
“Why aren’t those opening up? We are also talking to the Civil Aviation Ministry regularly on this,” he reported as he told the media of their constant requests to have some more countries to the Ministry. He mentioned, “We are fine with the graduated approach.”
Also, the demand for chartered flights has encouraged the IndiGo CEO as before the pandemic; he clarified that the airline didn’t fly any charter flights.
As IndiGo didn’t fly to places like Italy, Kazakhstan, and the Philippines on a scheduled daily basis, the airlines’ charter flights were a surprise. “Domestically, we have these wedding charters,” Dutta stated.
