In an exclusive interview with CNBC-TV18, Pieter Elbers, CEO of IndiGo, outlines the airline’s ambitious plans to become a global player by 2030.

Elbers, who joined IndiGo from KLM just over two and a half years ago, reflects on the airline’s journey from its inception to achieving market dominance in India. He credits the company’s success to making the right decisions at critical times, meeting customer needs for affordable travel, and leveraging the dedication of its workforce.

As IndiGo looks ahead, Elbers discusses the introduction of business class and a new loyalty programme as part of the airline’s strategy to elevate its position on the global stage.

Below is the verbatim transcript of the interview.

 Q: As an outsider who came into IndiGo from KLM a little over two and a half years ago, as you look at the IndiGo story and how it’s unfolded from the time when it started to where it is today — complete dominance in terms of market share, you almost enjoy about, between 60 and 70% at any given point in time… in terms of cost competitiveness, a strong balance sheet and profitability, what to your mind has been the big differentiator in ensuring this consistent success of IndiGo?

A: Indeed, we celebrated 18 years. So we are a relatively young airline by international standards. And when I joined IndiGo a little over two years back, actually, we were just exiting the entire COVID pandemic and traffic was really re-bouncing. I think what we have done at that point in time is really to take all the right decisions to make sure that we could benefit from they call revenge travel, which was taking place at that point in time. That really brought us from a customer base of 70 million customers to a little over 100 million customers last year.

Probably that also symbolises… the success of IndiGo throughout the 18 years. I think it’s a couple of things. First of all, the right decisions at the right time. Secondly, making sure that we are matching the needs of our customers, which is affordable air travel, and certainly flawless execution by all my IndiGo colleagues. That probably is the most important asset of the company — our people.

Q: Let us talk about IndiGo 2.0 because you said one of the success factors has been doing the right thing at the right time. Let us talk about the decisions that you have decided to go with, which is introducing business class, as well as a much sought after loyalty programme, finally after 18 years. Why do you believe this is the right time for both these decisions?

A: Now, take a step back and see where we are today. Today it’s 2024, IndiGo started to operate 18 years back. The India of today is very different from the India of 18 years back, and so will be the India in five years from now. When I joined two years ago, we set a point on the horizon being 2030. What type of airline does India need by 2030? Clearly, the vision was India at that point in time will not only need a very strong domestic carrier, but India’s role on the global stage will also be a different one. By that time, India will be the third largest economy in the world. It will be even stronger and closer and deeper connected to many other countries.

That requires an airline that is sized and scale, which can operate and compete on a global basis. So I think our benchmark there should be how are we doing on the global level and not per se only, how are we doing on a domestic level. All the decisions that we have taken over the past two years, and admittedly, it have been a rather busy two years, but all these decisions are part of that ambition and objective we have to be a global airline player by 2030.

Q: As a global airline player by 2030, how do the priorities change? How does the execution roadmap change at IndiGo to ensure that you deliver on that promise and that aspiration?

A: That is a very, very valid point. The very foundation of IndiGo is our domestic operation. Today we operate 88 domestic destinations. Now, if you think about that, 86% of the Indian population is living within a two-hour drive, provided it’s not raining, but living within a two-hour drive from an IndiGo-served airport. So that in itself shows the coverage. We have these 88 domestic destinations and a little over 400 domestic routes. That’s the very foundation of what we are. But increasingly, that is going international. So today, around a quarter of our seat miles are international. That percentage will go up to 30% in the foreseeable future and will go up even further.

The next step, if you wish, IndiGo 2.0, will be solidly rooted and deeply rooted in India because that’s what we are, and moving from there to a global stage. Therefore, we need different planes, planes which can fly further. Next year, we get the Airbus 321XLR coming in. That will bring us well into Europe, well into Asia, and from the southern part of India even to Australia. That in itself also requires a different product domestically. That’s exactly why we are launching prior to the end of this year a business class for the first time on the nation’s busiest business routes and indeed, we are very excited about it, we start our loyalty programme by the end of this month.

Q: I will get to the international aspiration in a bit, but I want to pick up on what you just said. In IndiGo’s story, and many would attribute the success to the fact that it was the original lean mean machine, simplicity was really the driving philosophy. Now, as you add these layers of complexity, I mean, business class, loyalty programmes and so on, how do you tweak the DNA of the organisation to go from that mindset of simplicity to what you call thoughtful complexity?

A: I think the mindset of simplicity was driven by the ambition to keep cost leadership. The simplicity was not the objective in itself, it was a means to an end, and the means to an end was cost leadership. So our ambition to keep cost leadership in this incredibly competitive Indian market will remain. But if the additional cost of complexity is outweighed by the additional revenues to be obtained, we should go after that opportunity.

I think back to some of the earlier decisions, even today, before implementing these new ones. IndiGo is different from what it was 18 years ago. We have already sort of left the pure, simple operation. We have an in-flight magazine. We have some catering products. We fly internationally, we have a co-branded credit card. We fly 20 a day between Delhi and Mumbai. That’s not a classical low-cost type of diverse network. So we have corporate contracts. We work with the biggest corporates in India as corporate contracts. So that station we have already left.

But now we really want to take the decisions in time. I think there are quite a few examples in the world where companies were sort of late, not per se in aviation only, but even outside, where companies were late in recognising how the world is changing around you. I think the Indian world is probably one of the fastest-changing worlds, one of the fastest-changing countries in the world, and we are, I believe, well-positioned to benefit from that.

Q: Does the low-cost positioning then change as well as you move towards international travel, as you move towards adding things like business class and loyalty programmes? Does that cost position at the back end start to change as well?

A: It depends a bit on what is your definition of low-cost position? We are determined to keep our cost leadership. Two days from now flying to a city is still ₹3,000, so for that we need to keep that cost leadership out there and we’re not making any changes on that product. But on top of that, we start to build what we are doing.

So if you see our business class, which we are going to introduce, we do that in what we call the nation’s busiest and business routes, 20 a day between Delhi and Mumbai, 14 a day between Delhi and Bengaluru, 13 a day between Delhi and Hyderabad, so that’s a set of routes. But it won’t be operational between Delhi and Guwahati. So we are basically tailor-making and creating a, if you wish, a set of routes where this is applicable.

Q: And which will be profitable as well?

A: Yes. In other parts of the world, they would just sort of roll it out all over. We feel, this is the thing we do today. Maybe in three years’ time we will add Guwahati, Pune or probably other stations prior to that. But I think we will change as we go along. And those cities are also precisely the cities from where the XLR will start flying. Those cities are cities from where wide bodies can start flying. So one should not look into any of these decisions in isolation. It’s all connected.

Q: You said these decisions are taken when you believe that the revenue advantage outweighs the incremental cost that you will have to take. Can you give me a ballpark estimate of what, for instance, the business class introduction is going to mean as far as revenue impact is concerned when you see a full rollout across the 12 routes that you spoke of? What is the international expansion going to result in, in terms of a revenue bump up as well, going forward?

A: The business class will be introduced in November this year, it will start on Delhi-Mumbai. Of course we get one plane, which will start, but as we fly 20 days, one plane is not enough. So by the end of this calendar year, the entire Delhi-Mumbai operation will be fully business class equipped, all our 20 flights a day. Maybe not one or two, but all the 20 flights is our ambition. Courtesy Airbus being on time with deliveries, we have all the flights there. Then we start to add Bengaluru, Hyderabad and all the other ones after that.

The objective clearly is we start in November 2024 and by the end of 2025, all these 12 routes, all these 40-plus planes which will operate this route are in operation.

So to your first question, we start in November, finish by the end of calendar year 2025, then it’s all operation.

Two, the introduction fares we have announced on our birthday — I think ₹18,018 — I’m sure we have some nice marketing twist to it. Of course, these prices will go up and down over time, but that was the introduction fare on this route. We’ll be having 12 seats on the plane. We haven’t made any sort of disclosure on what the exact revenue percentage will be, but… it’s going to be 40 planes in a total of 400. But then the revenues will be higher of course because it’s a business class. So it’s going to be a sizable percentage, but it’s going to be, as I shared earlier with some conversations, significant enough to be impactful and prudent enough to make sure that we’re not putting all the other stuff we have under that umbrella.

The international part is actually also interesting. Today we have 27%, we fly to 34 international destinations, and before the end of the year, that jumps up to 40. That percentage will go up to 30% as share. Next year, that percentage will go even further up with the introduction of the XLR, and later on the wide body. So we see that that process is changing. And with that, the very foundation of IndiGo will still be flying and connecting Indians in the country itself.

Q: I want to understand from you what the traveller should expect as far as the business class experience is concerned… I’m linking it back to the complexity question that I asked you about. Is the domestic business class play more a sort of experiment with what you intend to do as far as the international plans are concerned? Are you testing waters here with the business class experience in order for you to cater to what you intend to do internationally?

A: When IndiGo was founded, and I think at that time it was founded on let’s see what’s important for the customer, whatever is not important, we’re not offering, we’re not spending money on it, and we put it in the price. And that has been incredibly successful. The basis of that is today millions and millions of Indians have been able to travel by air, who used to go by train or car, or not at all. So the millions of first-time flyers, I think, is a very strong asset of IndiGo, and we keep building on that. That’s why the basis remains there, and I think the under-penetration of air travel in India is still providing millions and millions more of that. So that’s going to remain the very basis of that.

On the business class, you could have a similar approach. What is most important for business class travel? I think people talk a lot about, I want to have a hot meal. But what’s most important, actually, is the space you’re having, is some of the privacy you’re having, to make sure you’re last in and first out, make sure you have a smooth airport transfer.

So what we have done is, we have basically singled out what are the key important aspects for our customers and are we ready to spend money on that and what is nice for a conversation but not per se nice for decision making. The same goes for lounges, we will not have domestic lounges because people come late anyway and they go quickly to the gate, so it doesn’t add anything. So we believe that by introducing what we call a tailormade IndiGo product, we have a product which works in the Indian market. We will look at the exact same thing the moment we start to define what’s going to be our exact product on the XLR and on the wide body. It’s still work in progress and we haven’t yet given any sort of guidance on what precisely it would look like. But the approach is going to be the exact same, we look what’s important for our customer and from there we start to build.

Q: Let’s talk about what is happening as far as the Indian aviation market is concerned. You believe that we are in the midst of a consumption boom and this consumption boom is only going to gather more momentum as we move forward. What looks most exciting to me from an Indian aviation point of view, and I ask you this in the context of the fact that it’s a story that’s seen very little success and more failure. I am not asking you to comment on what has led to the failure, but I am asking you to comment on why you are such a big believer in the Indian aviation growth story today.

A: A part of it is timing and I think certain dynamics have taken place in India when it comes to economic development, which will not go back anymore. There is always a correlation between GDP growth and aviation, but what we see today is probably a couple of elements coming together. One is the GDP growth, two is the fact that the infrastructure is being upgraded significantly. (Look at) the government policies when it comes to making more airports, enlarging existing airports, enlarging facilities. If you see some of the new airports which are there, some of the changes… Bengaluru I think is a fantastic airport, a world-class airport. Next year we will have a new airport in Delhi, finally we will have two airports in Delhi.

Shanghai, New York, Tokyo, Paris, London, and Sao Paulo, they all have two airports. Delhi has only one. Mumbai has one, with all its limitations in terms of runway. Against that backdrop, I believe that GDP growth, infrastructure, consumer spending, and the demographic dividend of the country will fuel that aviation boom, domestic and certainly international as well.

Q: One of the key tailwinds at least currently is what is happening as far as crude prices are concerned. Now trading below $70 a barrel and that’s great news for airlines like yourself and the aviation turbine fuel (ATF) tailwind. How much do you factor in on account of that as far as margins are concerned, now given where we are?

A: The fuel prices… what you are going to do and what’s happening.. that’s always the moment of the day. Today they are trending in this direction but that could change again tomorrow.

Q: What’s your expectation on where they could be?

A: I am in the aviation business now for the last 32 years if I were to be able to predict the direction of the price of fuel I would not be an airline CEO, instead I would sit somewhere totally else. So I will not be able to predict that. When it comes to ATF, we see some different dynamics. Some states have really reduced it and that has had very positive effects on aviation travel because at the end of the day the consumer looks to how much money they can spend.

We see a few states, where it’s either been increased or considered to be increased. I think that’s something which will not support further growth of air travel. So that’s something about which we engage with the different stakeholders.

Q: Outside of ATF, let us talk about the competitive landscape because it’s essentially a duopoly currently as far as the Indian aviation market is concerned. With you, the distant leader, and of course, now the Tatas, and SpiceJet is struggling with its own challenges at this point in time. A, how do you read the competitive landscape? What does the merger of Air India and Vistara mean for IndiGo? How do you approach that and B, in terms of pricing power, this is great news for airlines, not necessarily for consumers, isn’t it?

A: First of all, what’s happening in terms of consolidation has happened in the US and Europe and it’s happening in India. It’s a natural evolution you see in other parts of the world in terms of consolidation. Then there are numerous countries where there are two larger airlines and some newer airlines sort of trying to get their piece of the pie as well, which is totally fine. I think looking at where India wants to go and where India should go in terms of building a global aviation hub, that requires airlines which are matching the size and the potential and the opportunity of the country.

From that angle, if we want to compete with some of the global airlines, and India is uniquely positioned, 65% of the world population is living within a 5-6 hour flight range from India, so that’s a great opportunity. But if we look to the west, we have fantastic aviation hubs in the Middle East. If we look to the east, we have Hong Kong and Singapore, where we have great hubs. If we want to compete with the great hubs, either in the east or in the west from us, we should build airlines which are of a size that can compete.

If you see some of the large carriers in the Middle East, if you want to compete with them to have a global aviation presence on India, we should have airlines of that size capable of doing that. I think we should look at it from that perspective.

Looking at today’s prices in the market and your question on consumer prices, I would invite you to look at the average prices in other parts of the world and compare that to the average prices in India. I was with a group of people this morning, I invited them to take out their phones and take the app of IndiGo, pick a city, say Ahmedabad, Delhi to Ahmedabad… two days from now and you find fare levels of ₹3,000. So the average prices — and that’s all public information — are still one of the most, if not the most competitive prices in the world. And yes, you will find a handful of fares for whatever reason are higher than what people will expect, but the overall fare levels are still very competitive.

Q: You talked about some of the factors that do impact pricing and fares. One of them, of course, is supply and supply constraints are weighing on the Indian aviation market as they are in global markets as well today. Given the fact that you have got the largest order that you have placed globally, how are you dealing with the current supply constraints and what could that mean potentially as far as your own expansion plans are concerned?

A: The global manufacturing or aircraft manufacturers and engine manufacturers are clearly still struggling after two years with all the post-COVID supply chain workforce challenges we are having. IndiGo is actually very well positioned. IndiGo placed a couple of orders prior to COVID, which we are benefiting from now. And indeed last year — probably one of the highlights — we placed the largest ever aircraft order with 500 planes coming in for the next decade. Which means that IndiGo has one plane a week for the next decade to come into India.

So as much as we are engaging with the manufacturers — and you said it’s going to be July 1, so please deliver on July 1 — I think we are equipped to deal with that. In addition, we have taken quite a few mitigating measures, some short-term leases, some operational measures to live up to our capacity guidance. We have done so last year and we have done so in our first quarter as well.

Q: Are we likely to see that the leases are something that you aggressively take forward more and more, given the constraints with what, about 70-odd planes, grounded at this point in time?

A: I would hope less and less, candidly… over time these manufacturers will get their supply chain sorted out.

Q: But what is the indication that you get at this point in time?

A: I wish I had a sharper view on that. We are constantly engaging with them, based on that we have taken some proactive measures, one of them being the leases. Over time, I believe that these issues will be sorted out  and after that, we are back to basically the IndiGo operation as it stands today. Again here, I think IndiGo is uniquely positioned. There is no airline in the world receiving as many planes as IndiGo. So every month that goes by, on an average, we get four new planes coming in. We are basically building up that buffer in order to deal with those fluctuations. I would say at one point in time, whenever that is past us, we should be able to do without some of these short-term leases.

Q: Cargo has been a big revenue boost for you in terms of ancillary revenue. You have now got a business class coming in as well. As you look at the future and potential levers where you could look for monetisable opportunities and revenue enhancement, what else do you see on the radar today?

A: Looking back to the history of IndiGo — at the beginning, probably there was no cargo. And some low-cost airlines are very clear on it — no cargo. Again, it speaks to the development of IndiGo and the opportunity approach. If there is cargo out there, let’s get it on board of our planes. So today we have three freighters, narrow-body freighters, and again by 2027, the wide bodies are coming in.

If we look at that philosophy of made in India… a lot of international production is now shifting to India, really. When we had that discussion about how does India look in 2027 and importantly, how does India look in 2030… and if we believe that a lot of the initiatives which are actually being put into building India into a manufacturing hub, building India into an aviation hub — that requires cargo capacity. Today 90% plus of all international cargo is on foreign airlines. We have a great opportunity to create that space for Indian operators like IndiGo to make sure that we get that cargo on our planes.

Q: So what could that potentially look like over the next five years, as the wide bodies come in as well?

A: I don’t have a number, but our capacity would be jumping up significantly. One wide body is equivalent to a whole lot of narrow bodies, and especially our narrow bodies which is full of passengers and the luggage etc. So that average load of cargo is relatively limited, but it’s meaningful because we have a lot of flights. On the wide body, where we have 30 on firm order now and more in options later, that percentage could go up significantly.

Q: The thing that IndiGo launched with and prided itself on was on time performance, and what we have seen happen is that there has been a deterioration in that number, and it has impacted not just your numbers, but the industry in general, on account of the fact that you’re the largest player in the business. What is the challenge? What’s the biggest problem at this point in time? And as a consumer, we’re sort of circling around Delhi and Mumbai for a good 30-40 minutes before we land on any given flight that we take. What’s the big challenge that you’re facing there?

A: Well, I can assure you, we’re not letting you circle around Delhi or Mumbai for the fun of circling around. We are closely collaborating with the airports, with air traffic control, in order to cope with demand.

I think what’s happening in India is the post-COVID growth is happening at a pace where we also need to keep up with the infrastructure both on the ground and in the air. A lot of the effort is being made to make sure that that infrastructure is there.  In some places in the country, it goes quick and fast. And in some other locations, I think Delhi is one of them, it’s just complex — there are three terminals, and then the runways, a lot of work is being done and expansion is going on. It’s really a collaborative approach, which we need to have.

Clearly, the bad weather season, which we had last winter, has taught us a lot of lessons. It didn’t all go well. On our side, we did our best. Our teams did really a fantastic job. We are learning how to do better. For example, for this winter, we have created an entire set of operational preparations — increase some block times, increase some operational procedures, change some metrics. Some further enhancements of airports infrastructure and operational decisions have to be taken. That’s all being done in order to deal with that challenge.

And I’m glad you pointed it out as it’s an industry challenge. But for us, indeed, given our size, and especially on Delhi and Mumbai, which are the most busy airports when it comes to sort of usage of airspace, that’s a challenge.

Q: But, speaking of learnings, I want to draw you into what’s happening on the technology side. Link this to what we just saw with the CrowdStrike outage, and that basically brought the aviation industry globally to its knees on that particular day. And 48 hours were mayhem, I would imagine, for you and your team. What’s been the big learning from that experience and how much is tech being prioritised now, as you position yourself as a global airline?

A: What happened here was indeed a global outage in one of the systems. Why did it affect airlines differently in the world? Because that particular software is used in different parts, and the percentage of usage or the adoption is different in different airlines. That’s why you saw quite a big difference between one and the other.

I think credit to our team and in India, the first word I learned in Hindi, we have this beautiful jugaad in order to deal with some of these challenges.

Q: What does jugaad mean to you?

A: In this case, it meant that people moving from a check-in through machines to a manual check-in. Think about that. We have three lakh customers on a given day. All the systems are out. So what to do? And our teams at all these 88 airports moved into a system with handwritten boarding passes. I call that jugaad.

I said, we cannot turn around the plane in 35 minutes, we need to turn it around in 55 minutes, so please cancel a few flights, which we did, but we made sure that out of the three lakh customers which were supposed to fly by the end of the day, 2,40,000 people had been flown. We were writing 2,40,000 manual check-in cards. So I think our teams did a great job in dealing with it.

More broadly, what we learnt was, how do we have all the sort of redundancy systems in place, and how do we have fall back options to the extent we can foresee global outages in place? That’s exactly what we’re working on. I think our digital programme is clearly one of the cornerstones that we have at IndiGo. We were okay, but not running ahead of the pack. Being in India, the whole world comes to India to digitise. So we should be a front runner on that part.

I think we’ve done a lot of good stuff now on our app. The next operational disturbance season, which is coming with the fog, we should have better information on the app, direct access to our customers.

Q: You said, you’ve learnt your first Hindi word, which is jugaad. You’ve also obviously understood the philosophy behind it. What else has India and the Indian customer taught you?

A: Value consciousness is clearly something — there is enormous focus in making sure that we get value for money on that.

Q: Is it different from other paying customers in other parts of the world?

A: I would say it’s not, per se, different, but it is with the joy I see. The joy of, hey, I got a good deal. More seriously, the vibrancy and the forward-looking, ambitious approach that’s  surprised me… I have enjoyed, been inspired by. They believe tomorrow is going to be a better day and next week is going to be better than this week. I think that’s the philosophy out there. I’m going to put my best foot forward on that. I’m going to work hard. I’m going to enjoy hard. The way festivals and hard work are all weaving into each other. And I think that part is an incredible, exciting experience.

Q: You talked about people being the biggest asset as far as IndiGo is concerned, and that’s the case for most companies and for most sectors. As IndiGo evolves into IndiGo, 2.0 from a people’s perspective, from your hiring strategy, from what you do as far as the back end is concerned, is that likely to change?

A: Slightly yes. This applies for every company, but probably for the airline, even more, because we are such a capital and labour intensive business. We have 38,000-39,000 people in IndiGo itself, and then there is our subsidiary company, a handling company. So it brings us to over half a lakh of people working for IndiGo, and a lot of customer facing stuff. And that customer facing stuff is really making the brand. While they’re making the brand, we can put out any ad or any nice logo, but at the end of the day, it’s the people who make the brand, and we’ll continue to build on that. I think our training centre, IFLY, is really our pride. We  now have it not only in Delhi, but also in Bengaluru.

That’s the customer facing part. I think, the next step is to make sure that the digital side, let’s say the business intelligence side, is changing a lot.

I was at the IIM in Ahmedabad two weeks back, and that’s where we should start to get those graduates coming in and be part of that next journey of IndiGo. So pretty much same as our business proposition, we keep what we have, we keep nurturing and celebrating. That’s the customer facing stuff, it will not change.

By 2030, we will still have crew on board, ground staff checking you in. By 2030, we will still have captains doing the fantastic job they’re doing today. So that’s still there, but we need to make sure that on the digital side, on the business process, intelligence, on all those aspects, we get these people coming in.

I’m very proud of that whatever we do in the PWD. Now, we have over 200 people with disabilities working throughout the network, I think being a big company, and we should have that part of our global and corporate responsibility, and that’s an energising part we continue to work on as well.

Q: I’m glad that you talked about diversity and inclusion and what you’ve been trying to do at IndiGo, and I know that one of the pillars of IndiGo is to focus on bringing more women into the workforce across different roles and functions. I want to understand from you what the challenge has been there, what the learning has been there, not just to get women on board, but to get women to stay as well. Because many companies grapple with that.

A: If you take IndiGo overall, we have 45% of women. If you look at global nations, it’s not bad. It’s not 50%, but it’s not bad. But then if you start to break it down, you see large variations between the different teams. I don’t think there’s a one size fits all approach, but there are a couple of things which we try to do. One is we’ve launched a programme at our engineering teams, what we call returning moms. So these are women, who are engineers, and after their maternity leave, they struggle to come back for different reasons. We let them come back in engineering, which is often a very male dominated environment.

Secondly, what we are extremely proud of is that we have 15% female pilots, which is pretty much double the global average, which is a single-digit number. And we also try to nurture that.

Q: Why do you think that’s the case? Why do you believe that India is above the global average when it comes to more women being in the cockpit?

A: I think Indian women like to be in control. On a serious note, I think you need to have role models. We recently had 77 female pilots joining us, and I had the opportunity and pleasure to interact with quite a few of them. And doing that was actually such a great story, listening to them. And all of them, without exception, had a role model —  male or female. So you need to create a critical mass, whereby, you say say, hey, if she can do it, I can do it. And if she can achieve that, I can achieve that. And I think that’s helping a lot.

India has long history of many military female pilots, I think these are the sort of role models which were out there in the past. So mechanics is one, pilots is another, and now we start in offices, where mobility is important, as is returning post-maternity.

Internal mobility is something which helps a lot in offering proper career paths and opportunities. We adjust all your policies to that. We can never say we’re good. We can only say we are learning and we continue to learn, and make good progress in doing that.

Q: As you move forward in this journey of pivoting IndiGo to becoming a global airline from India by 2030, you’ve talked about the immense opportunity that you see, but what would you put down as the single biggest challenge, the single-biggest headwind?

A: I don’t think there’s a single-biggest headwind. I think there are a couple of things which are outside our control — the supply chain challenges, catching up with infrastructure, those are outside our immediate control. Inside we need to make sure that we have the talent in, we have them ready on time, and that we continue with our digitisation. And I would say the last, but certainly most important point is to make sure that we continue to be truthful to our customers, and that they continue to choose IndiGo for their travels.