IndiGo reportedly will not launch flights to any European destinations for the next six months or even a year. The plan is not being reversed but will be put under review.
IndiGo co-founder Rakesh Gangwal's plan to take the budget carrier west, with low-cost long haul flights to Europe, has now been postponed indefinitely due to mounting costs and slick margins, as per a report in The Economic Times.
Sources told the paper that IndiGo will not launch flights to any European destinations for the next six months or even a year. The plan is not being reversed but will be put under review. The airline did not get the necessary regulatory approvals for flights to London, which was going to be the first destination that it was targeting. The airline had booked slots in the city's Gatwick airport, but they will expire by March end.
The IndiGo management is in the middle of a heated debate on whether the proposed model for international flights would be enough to stimulate demand in such a competitive environment. Highly established carriers like Emirates and Singapore Airlines also concerned some members of the board, which is why the plan was ultimately postponed.
In the beginning of 2018, the airline had requested regulatory approval for destinations like London, Madrid and Paris. In a conference call with analysts, Gangwal had said IndiGo must take advantage of the international market India offers because its large domestic network enables it to capture that growing market.
When Air India was put on the block, IndiGo had expressed intentions to buy a stake in the debt-laden airline to take advantage of its international airport slots and flying rights. But the deal never took off.
Rising costs and pressure on yields kept the carrier from acquiring bigger planes—the 300-seater Airbus A330—that it had initially planned on getting.
