IndiGo is not eyeing a stake in GoFirst, says CEO Pieter Elbers

India's largest airline IndiGo is not eyeing a stake in NCLT-admitted peer GoFirst, CEO Pieter Elbers told CNBC-TV18's Shereen Bhan in an exclusive interaction.

Elbers mentioned that the current focus is on developing their own company. "Again, I am not reacting to any rumours (On the GoFirst stake) - but IndiGo is focusing on developing our own company," Elbers said, adding that the airline has placed orders of nearly 1,000 planes which are yet to be delivered.

"So we are in a strong position to build our company and build our brands and that is really our focus going forward," IndiGo's CEO said.

However, Elbers did mention during the company's quarterly earnings call that it is in touch with airports to temporarily give them GoFirst slots.

The Wadia Group-promoted Go First is currently undergoing insolvency proceedings where the National Company Law Tribunal will resume hearings on August 7. It has suspended services till August 3 due to operational reasons and further updates. The airline is looking to resume limited flights on select routes.

IndiGo has expanded its international operations through codeshare agreements with local airlines. In partnership with Turkish Airlines, it is now flying to 34 European destinations. Elbers also mentioned that the US codeshares are doing well with connections to Istanbul. The airline is now connecting over 110 destinations with over 500 routes.

Later this week, IndiGo will also be commencing flights from Mumbai to Nairobi, marking its foray into the African continent. There are also direct flights from Mumbai to Jakarta, and from Delhi to Tbilisi, Almaty and Tashkent that will begin this week. "And with that, you see that our relative share of available seat kilometers is moving from the low 20s to a 30 percent of our network," Elbers said.

However, Elbers told CNBC-TV18 that despite the growing share of IndiGo's international business, the domestic market remains its foundation and backbone. Shivamogga in Karnataka will be the airline's 79th domestic destiation, Elbers said. IndiGo has added nearly 200 new routes since the pandemic.

"Earlier this year, we connected Delhi to Dharamshala. Now we're not in fact only connecting Delhi to Dharamshala, but suddenly it connects over Delhi to a lot of different places. So our strategy domestic really will continue to add destinations, and more so adding a number of routes," he said.