IndiGo, India's biggest airline, pushes for global expansion

New CEO acknowledges budget carrier's brand is 'unknown' outside home market

20230413 Pieter Elbers

Pieter Elbers headed Dutch airline KLM for nearly eight years before joining IndiGo in 2022. © Reuters

SAYAN CHAKRABORTY, Nikkei staff writer

BENGALURU -- Last September, Pieter Elbers became chief executive of India's largest airline, IndiGo, and quickly discovered what it is like to be overlooked.

A budget carrier specializing in domestic routes, IndiGo flew more than twice as many passengers last year as AirAsia, Singapore Airlines, Japan Airlines or All Nippon Airways. But few people outside its home country had heard about it.

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