Willie Walsh wants to go big on long-haul routes with IndiGo. But it won’t be a smooth flight

IndiGo is busy laying out some big plans for its international operations.

In less than two years, as early as the first half of 2028, the airline will start welcoming its A350-900 aircraft, the kind that is capable of flying over 15,750 miles and carrying over 400 passengers, allowing it to go as far as the US from India without any stop. The airline has plans to add as many as 60 A350-900 aircraft, which will also likely redraw its standing as a low-cost carrier and propel it to a different league in global aviation.  

Critical to that is the airline’s decision to configure the first 10 aircraft with 16 lie-flat business-class seats, premium economy and economy cabins. In effect, that means positioning the airline as a full-service carrier, after years of building its reputation as a no-frills carrier with a penchant for operational efficiency and low costs.  

“With the long haul, the critical issues obviously are air space, getting the right aircraft. and having the right network,” Walsh had said last week. “And then having a product that people want to use, having a network that meets the demands of the consumer, having the aircraft that can serve those demands in an efficient way. With the A350, I think you’ve got the best aircraft you can have in terms of long-haul flying body aircraft.”

IndiGo had placed an order for 30 A350-900s in 2024, later adding another 30 aircraft to its plan in 2025. While it does operate the A321 XLR, which can fly up to 8,000 miles with a maximum seating capacity of 244 passengers, its major long-haul operational experience came from operating the damp-leased Boeing 787, flying to the UK, which the airline has since stopped. The introduction of the A350S is keenly watched, since it would allow the airline to fly anywhere in the world, after many years cementing itself as a regional heavyweight.

“I think we’ve got all the ingredients to make the long-haul expansion work for us,” Walsh had said in response to a question from Fortune India. “I am also pleased with where we are in terms of the planning for the introduction of the aircraft.”

Still, it is perhaps likely to be the biggest challenge awaiting IndiGo, after bulldozing its way through the domestic market and cornering as much as 2/3rd of the market in a span of two decades. Geopolitical uncertainties, along with the closure of Pakistan’s airspace, have caused a nightmare for India’s other long-haul operator, Air India, leading to heavy losses since the past year. Longer routes to Europe and other destinations in the west had already raised flight durations and fuel consumption, in addition to setting up new bases. Then, there is also the volatile cost of fuel, alongside the depreciating rupee, that has added costs, even as airlines have had to reduce capacity.

“The A350’s range gives IndiGo room to route around closed airspace that a narrowbody doesn’t have,” Alok Anand, the chairman of Acumen Aviation, an aircraft asset management and leasing company, says. “The harder part is the network, not the aircraft. With Pakistan airspace still closed to Indian carriers, Delhi is the most penalised base for Europe and North America. Walsh has said as much, and that is why Mumbai and Navi Mumbai matter so much to the plan.”

“The expansion this time is into wide-body international flying, which is a complex strategy and needs judicious management,” Satyendra Pandey, the managing partner of aviation finance firm AT-TV, says. “If IndiGo can continue with the same discipline that built the moat for IndiGo — namely cost control, schedule integrity, asset utilisation—the wide-body international operations will be a good complement to its network.”

From 5 destinations and 12 routes in FY16, IndiGo’s international network has expanded to 44 destinations and more than 150 routes in FY26. In all, the Rahul Bhatia-controlled airline plans to operate a fleet of over 550 aircraft, carry 200 million passengers annually and run roughly 3,000 flights a day by financial year 2030 with its wide-body and narrow-body aircraft.

“My caution is about timing,” adds Anand. “The first aircraft arrives in mid-2028, and nobody can plan today’s routes against what the map will look like then. IndiGo has done the sensible thing by ending the Norse 787 operation rather than carrying losses to hold a position. I would expect the early A350 flying to go where the economics work regardless of airspace, and the more exposed westbound routes to follow once there is some clarity.”

Enter Walsh, the veteran

Walsh took charge of the airline in August this year, a little over 20 years since its founding, and crucially also at a time when it has set ambitions to grow its international capacity to 40%, with mid- and long-haul operations increasing to 10-15% from about 4% currently.

Walsh, an aviation legend of sorts, was key to the formation of the €33.213 billion International Airlines Group, a British Spanish multinational airline holding company that comprises British Airways and Iberia, the flag carriers of the United Kingdom and Spain, respectively, along with Vueling and Aer Lingus. He is also well regarded for cutting costs, and keeping a tight leash on costs, having done so in his previous tenure at British Airways.

“We've got a very significant network that can naturally feed our long-haul operations,” Walsh said last week. “So, we don't have to redesign our network at our hub airports because we have sufficient volumes and frequency of flights to be able to do that, without compromising on the efficiency.”

Since its founding, much IndiGo’s competitive advantage has come from its cost structure, operational excellence and network scale, particularly across underserved metro and non-metro markets. While that has earned it a reputation for a lean mean flying machine, it is now consciously attempting to shed its low-cost image, with a shift to features such as its version of business class, named Stretch, and a frequent flyer program.

“Stretch will probably remain the product for domestic and short international routes where a recliner is enough,” Anand adds. “The challenge is keeping three premium experiences (Stretch, premium economy and flat beds) consistent under one brand that people still associate with no-frills. IndiGo hasn't yet proven it can run a premium service at a consistent standard. In India, I expect the core to stay low-cost, with premium as a layer for corporate and international traffic rather than a change of identity.”

India’s aviation industry has long been a graveyard of sorts, with many struggling to stay afloat before winding down operations. This year, mounting financial pressures caused by geopolitical factors, a depreciating rupee and rising fuel costs are likely to cause net losses of Rs 38,000 crore for the sector, compared with estimated losses of Rs 28,000-30,000 crore in FY2026. It is into such a market, that IndiGo is now attempting a makeover of sorts.

“Geopolitics in the near term has stopped being a tail risk in a model and become a line item in the budget,” says Pandey. “Given the West Asia conflict, India’s airlines are disproportionately impacted as there are large volumes of passengers traveling to and from the Middle East region to India. But that said, the real test of airlines is during times such as these, and often scenario planning is found wanting. This, as running an airline, is such a complex task that often there is no time to distance yourself from the operation and think.”

That means a need to integrate geopolitical volatility into the planning cycle, including fuel and liquidity buffers and dynamic capacity reallocation. Already, Walsh has floated the idea of hedging fuel, a practice it hasn’t engaged in at any time, perhaps as a prelude to its long-haul operation. About 40 percent of the airline's costs are currently fuel-related, and it has already racked up massive losses in the last quarter on the back of rising fuel costs.

IndiGo's aircraft fuel expenses surged 67.2% year on year to Rs 9,966.8 crore in the September quarter, outpacing the 25.9% growth in revenue from operations to Rs 23,363.8 crore. “Hedging is about managing risk,” Walsh had said. “It's not about taking a bet on what the fuel price will be. It's about giving you stability and managing risk. If we were to hedge, given that our competitors in the domestic market aren't hedged, then you're introducing an additional risk, which clearly goes against the whole principle of hedging.”

But, with as many as 40 percent of the Asian carriers hedging fuel and as many as 80 percent of European airlines engaged in fuel hedging, it is seemingly looking like a necessary bet. IndiGo is currently in the midst of a comprehensive review of hedging practices. Fuel hedging allows for a locked in fixed price for fuel in the future, giving the airline predictability.

“Domestic business is still what pays for everything else,” says Anand. “What IndiGo must keep in mind is that international flying is less forgiving of disruption than domestic, and December 2025 showed the operation was already stretched. It needs strong feed from its domestic network, partners at the far end, and the patience to build yields route by route. Long-haul markets take time to mature, and taking a few loss-making years on each new route is normal. Doing that on too many routes at once, in a high-fuel year, is the risk.

Steadying the ship

A year ago, IndiGo witnessed its biggest operational crisis in two decades when as many as 2,500 flights were canceled, and over 1,800 were delayed, affecting over 3 lakh passengers. The primary causes of the disruption were over-optimisation of operations after the government introduced revised Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) provisions. In the aftermath, IndiGo’s CEO, Pieter Elbers, resigned, and the airline faced the wrath of the Indian government, forcing IndiGo to look for a new CEO eventually.

Walsh was serving as the director general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), a trade body that represents 85 percent of the airlines across the world, when he was chosen as the new CEO.  “He has only been in the job for three months, but some changes are already visible,” says Anand about Walsh. “The Norse wide-body damp lease has been ended, capacity was cut back in a weak quarter rather than pushed out, fuel hedging is under review, and Navi Mumbai is now described as a long-term base rather than a stopgap. These are pragmatic moves.”

“The hardest problems as an airline scales are not strategic rather cultural and consequently operational,” says Pandey. “In Willie Walsh, IndiGo has been able to get an executive who has diverse experience across the airline spectrum, and this will be beneficial to the airline.”

That said, with India’s aviation market, currently the third largest in the world, and accounting for just about 4 percent of the global air traffic despite having 17.8 percent of the world population, the potential remains enormous, which is why the likes of IndiGo are moving at breakneck speed to tap into growing international opportunities. India is also currently the world’s fastest-growing large economy, and the country’s aviation sector could see 500 million passengers by 2030 according to estimates.

Together, Air India and IndiGo have as many as 1,000 aircraft on order to cater to the growing demand. By 2040, India’s passenger traffic is expected to grow sixfold to around 1.1 billion, with India’s commercial airline fleet predicted to grow from 400 in 2014 to around 2,359 in March 2040. The number of airports is also expected to grow to 400 by 2047.

“IndiGo is the clear market leader in Indian aviation, combining unmatched scale, cost leadership and a growing international network,” brokerage firm Jefferies said in a report. “While near-term earnings face pressure from elevated fuel costs and fleet induction-led inefficiencies, IndiGo remains best positioned to capture India's long-term air travel growth. Its expanding international footprint, improving mix of higher-yield routes, and ability to deploy capacity flexibly should help offset competition from Air India (if any) and support sustained earnings growth over time.”

All that means, Walsh and IndiGo are acutely aware of the opportunity ahead. If anything, it’s also likely that IndiGo has a well-laid-out plan for its international expansion. The question, though, remains. Can it really beat geopolitical uncertainties? That might be Walsh’s biggest challenge.