IndiGo will look to expand internationally but carefully in a bid to avoid the mistakes made Jet Airways, CEO Ronojoy Dutta told CNBC-TV18 in an exclusive interview.
Once the biggest success story in Indian aviation, Jet Airways operated its last flight in April before being grounded under crushing debt that it failed to service. And Dutta feels that all was well at Jet until they shifted their focus from narrow-body planes to the wider ones.
“Airlines are a very unforgiving industry and there are many parts to failure and there are only a few parts to success. I think Jet Airways is a good case study in that issue. Jet was doing great I think when they were focusing on narrow bodies. When they first started, corporate India was in love with them because they had a good product, good on-time, they were making money,” Dutta said.
Dutta added that trying to grow too fast too soon proved to be Jet’s undoing, a mistake that IndiGo will look to avoid in its own expansion plans.
“Then they took the second step of going into the Middle East and again it was a wonderful success story, very profitable. Then they made a third step and they probably made a mistake. They jumped into wide bodies too early, too fast, with a fragmented fleet — some 777, some A330, let us go to New York and go to New York with a hub in Brussels, then let us try a hub in Amsterdam, and then it was okay now we are going down the wrong path.
“So IndiGo needs avoid those mistakes. Yes, we are going to expand internationally, but we are going to do it carefully, cautiously, and not make the same mistake", he added.
Dutta took reins as CEO of the domestic carrier in January this year following the departure of Aditya Ghosh last year.
IndiGo, helped by the demise of Jet Airways, reported a 400 percent increase in net profit in its Q4 results. The airline has also been on a route expansion spree, starting flights to previously uncharted destinations.
First Published: Jun 25, 2019 8:35 PM IST
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