The National Air Travel Market of India is still very biased towards last -minute reserves, and a significant part of the tickets within the same travel month was bought, said Indigo CEO, Pieter Elbers. The trend raises challenges and opportunities as the airline expands its offers, including executive class services on selected routes.

“The incredible late reserve character of the Indian market means a very important part of the reserves in the month itself,” said Elbers. While this adds uncertainty, he said that the last months have shown a strong demand, with passenger traffic that grows more than 11% year -on -year in January and February, according to the General Directorate of Civil Aviation Data.

Indigo, who turned 18 fiscal, has been expanding his portfolio to address client preferences. The airline introduced its executive class product, Stretch, on the most busy commercial routes in the country. Run in August, it was put into operation on the Delhi-Mumbai route in November, followed by Delhi-Bangalore and, more recently, Delhi-Chennai. “Until now, all good,” Elbers said on the launch.

Although Indigo is the largest acquirer in the world of new airplanes, which receives a plane every week, he said that he has been in a particular route to offer executive class services for some time. The airline has reached large-scale operations to stretch on the Delhi-Mumbai and Bangalore routes, while Delhi-Chennai services began only a few days ago.