InterGlobe Aviation Ltd. is operating as per the guidance of India’s service agreement, compliant with the government regulations, according to IndiGo Chief Executive Officer Pieter Elbers.
“If they change, we will adjust accordingly to make sure that we are compliant. But for now, we continue to serve our customers,” Elbers told NDTV.
Elbers’ statement comes against the backdrop of aviation watchdog BCAS revoking the security clearance for Turkish company Celebi Airport Services India Pvt. on May 15 in the “interest of national security”, days after Turkiye backed Pakistan and condemned India’s strikes on terror camps in the neighbouring country.
The airline reported a 62% rise in its fourth-quarter profit, surpassing analysts’ estimates. “We have seen a very strong performance last year, especially, the last quarter was really great for us,” said the CEO.
Effects Of India-Pakistan Conflict
Obviously, the month of May has been hit due to the situation in the north of the country, the CEO said. “Looking at the overall of the month, (there is) opportunity in the market.”
Elbers highlighted that the cancellations came to a halt and people started to book again and “we have an optimistic view on the return of travellers”.
“There were 32 airport closures in north India, and IndiGo operated 11 of them. As a result, we had to cancel 170 flights. Given that IndiGo operates around 2,300 flights daily, 170 cancellations over eight days amount to a very low single-digit percentage of our total operations,” he said.
After the Pakistani airspace closure, IndiGo decided to suspend flights to Tashkent and Almaty, as flying out of the airspace made the flights too long.
“Out of a total of 131 destinations with 41 international, we needed to suspend just two,” Elbers pointed out. “For remaining flights, a total of 34–35 flight flights from northern India to the Middle East have been affected due to longer flying times up to 20–30 mins.”
“Putting into perspective, these are limited numbers for IndiGo. The airspace closure is a reality that we need to deal with,” he said.
On arrangement with Turkish Airlines on codeshare partnership, he said, “Within the framework of Air Service Agreement, IndiGo is operating fully compliant with the regulations, the frameworks and the opportunities and the restrictions.”
“We have thousands of customers booked on those connecting flights, and we want to continue to serve those customers,” he said.
Reviewing Network
IndiGo Airlines is currently reviewing its network, amid the closure of Pakistani airspace. “We may re-allocate some of the capabilities to the Southern parts,” he said.
The CEO highlighted that given the size of India, IndiGo has the opportunity to explore different geographical scope. “The airlines, if needed, can temporarily re-allocate the capabilities some other places,” he said.
The opportunity to fly towards different geographies to different parts of the world with different routes is also being explored, he added.
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