‘Go big or go home’: How IndiGo plans to dominate the skies under CEO Pieter Elbers

As IndiGo tops the valuation charts globally, how big is the future of India’s aviation sector?

I joined IndiGo two and half years ago. In my initial conversations with Rahul Bhatia (promoter and MD of IndiGo’s parent firm InterGlobe Aviation), he said: “I know the opportunity for India is enormous. But I don’t know how enormous.” That summarises it.

When I joined in 2022, the mandate was to transform IndiGo into a global aviation giant. Today, India is the fifth-largest economy in the world. By 2027, it will be the third largest. India deserves an airline of a size, scale, and opportunity that is a fair reflection of the country, what it stands for, and what it will be in the future. By that notion, we put a point on the horizon (2030) and launched a strategy towards “new heights and across new frontiers” ⁽¹⁾. Two years later, people have started seeing us connecting the dots — internationalisation, wide-body [aircraft], stretch products, and loyalty link-up with Accor.