IndiGo’s recent firm order for 500 Airbus A320 Family aircraft, while enhancing its passenger and route capacity, will significantly boosts its belly cargo capacity, to cater to a growing domestic and international airfreight market.
From March 1, 2023, IndiGo organised its cargo business by having two business leaders for cargo, focusing on the domestic and international business, respectively. The newly appointed Mark Sutch is the Chief Commercial Officer – CarGo International and Mahesh Kumar Malik, Chief Commercial Officer — CarGo Domestic, the airline had said in a statement.
Mark Sutch had said on his appointment, “I am very excited with this opportunity at IndiGo. As the airline’s international network and frequency grows, there is an opportunity for IndiGo to build world class cargo products and solutions using both its A321 freighters and extensive belly capacity. This will support India’s growing air cargo export and import demand”.
The firm order will provide IndiGo a further steady stream of deliveries between 2030 and 2035. This 500 aircraft order is not only IndiGo’s largest order, but also the largest-ever single aircraft purchase by any airline with Airbus. The exact mix of A320 and A321 aircraft will be decided later.
Today IndiGo operates over 300 aircraft and has previous orders totalling 480 aircraft which are yet to be delivered within the end of this decade. With this additional firm order of 500 aircraft for 2030-2035, IndiGo’s orderbook has almost 1,000 aircraft yet to be delivered well into the next decade. This orderbook comprises a mix of A320NEO, A321NEO and A321XLR aircraft, said a release.