IndiGo to fly to 30 cities by 2010

Bangalore: IndiGo, the country's newest low-fare domestic airline, on Tuesday said that it plans to serve 30 cities across the country with a fleet of 40 A-320s by 2010.

IndiGo took delivery of its third new A-320 aircraft on September 28 and would add this week the fourth one which would be used to add three new destinations – Mumbai, Nagpur and Vadodara to its network, a top company executive said.

By the end of the calendar year 2006, the airline hopes to have carried 4,75,000 passengers with six airplanes, IndiGo President and CEO Bruce Ashby said.

Nine more aircraft would be added in 2007 and by December 2007, IndiGo's fleet would comprise 15 aircraft.

He said IndiGo would expand its route network in South India, where it operated twice-daily flights on the Delhi-Bangalore sector, with one non-stop flight and one same-aircraft service with a stopover in Pune.

From September 30, IndiGo also began twice-daily services from Delhi to Hyderabad with a same-aircraft continuation to Chennai and back. IndiGo is flying these routes with its third new Airbus A320 aircraft.

Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad were emerging business centres and the south was also an attractive tourist destination, he said, adding, "As we continue to add brand new A320 aircraft to our fleet each month this year, we will keep improving connectivity between the cities."