Budget carriers Indigo will start Kolkata to Guangzhou ( sprawling Port city in China) and Kolkata to Ho Chi Min City ( Vietnam) daily international flight services from October this year as part of its international flight expansion plans, according to Mr. Willy Boulter, CCO of Indigo. At present India’s largest airline, Indigo operates daily international flight services from Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata to Dhaka ( one daily), Hong Kong ( one daily), Singapore (one daily), Yangon (one daily) routes.

In an exclusive interview with The Statesman, Willy Boulter, chief commercial officer (CCO) of Indigo Airlines informed that on 23 September Kolkata to Hanoi (Vietnam) daily flight services will commence. “Last year about a whopping 1.2 lakh people from India traveled Vietnam. But till date there has been no direct flight to Vietnam from India and passengers used to face a lot of trouble. With the introduction of the country’s first direct daily flight services to Vietnam from Kolkata, we feel that more passengers will travel to that country now from India and especially from Eastern India without much hassle,” Mr. Willy Boulter explained.

Mr. Willy Boulter said that within the next few months Indigo will also introduce new daily domestic flight services with its small Regional Aircrafts (ATR) to the North- East destinations of the country from Kolkata. He further added that within the next one year Indigo has planned a whopping 50 percent expansion and has ordered about 420 numbers of the Airbus A320 family, out of which 85 have already been delivered and also 50 numbers of ATR Aircrafts, out of which 19 aircraft have already been handed over. While the ATR aircrafts manufactured by France have 78 seats, the Airbus A320 family have about 180 to 200 seating capacity.

It has also plans to introduce A321 XLR into its fleet. The growth in both domestic and international sector in the aviation sector in eastern India in the last fiscal has been 30 to 32 percent which has been at par with the country’s national growth rate. With over 1400 daily flights, Indigo currently has 48.1 percent domestic market share and 15 percent international market share in the country. “We just want to build a world class airlines network and from at present daily 110 flight services from Kolkata within the next few months the daily flights operated by Indigo from Kolkata will be 120,” said Mr. Willy Boulter.