IndiGo Airlines (6E, Delhi International) is targeting 350 aircraft by March 31, 2024, up from the current 304 planes, as its CEO pursues what he calls "the next level of growth."

"The Indian (aviation) market has a new momentum. Probably it was a bit boiling prior to Covid, which stopped everything, but I would say now, that post-Covid, it (aviation growth) is hand in hand with the growth of the Indian economy and it is really moving forward," said CEO Pieter Elbers said in a recent Press Trust of India interview.

"IndiGo is in a good place, we operate 300 aircraft, higher than any other operator in India. No airline in India has ever reached that number of aircraft in operation and we still have a little short of 500 aircraft to be delivered to us within the next decade from an exisiting order, which means a steady flow of aircraft coming to us."

IndiGo presently operates 304 aircraft according to the ch-aviation fleets module. The existing fleet includes twenty-two A320-200s, 161 A320-200Ns, two A321-200(P2F)s, seventy-nine A321-200NX, thirty-nine ATR72-600s, and one wet-leased B777-300ER. The latest order and delivery data from Airbus shows that IndiGo has 487 aircraft on order, including 108 A320-200Ns and 307 A321-200Ns. IndiGo expects to wrap up the 2022/23 Indian fiscal year on March 31 with 305 aircraft. ch-aviation has also recently reported on comments by French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, who said that IndiGo is eyeing another Airbus order at the upcoming Paris Air Show, potentially for "hundreds of planes."

"We're probably somewhere in the top three to five airlines in the world when it comes to outstanding fleet orders," said Elbers. "This year, we will welcome around 80 million passengers. Next year, that will be in the range of 100 million. The (aviation) market is expected to grow at probably twice the GDP growth for several years to come, and with that, it should probably double by the end of the decade."

IndiGo received two aircraft from Airbus in the first two months of 2023, including an A320neo in late January, and an A321neo in mid-February. Elbers said IndiGo is now operating approximately 1,800 flights per day and that the airline expects to grow its network by around 15% this calendar year, including launching routes to new international destinations such as Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta and Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta.