Pieter Elbers’ Playbook for Turning IndiGo Into a Global Carrier

IndiGo dominates India’s skies. The harder part is breaking out of the regional market to compete with the giants of Europe, the Middle East, and beyond.

Already India’s largest airline, IndiGo hired Pieter Elbers to accelerate its expansion. Under his watch as chief executive, the company is ramping up its international growth as it transitions from being a regional player into a major cross-border carrier.

More than 100 long-haul aircraft are on the way. IndiGo has 60 A350-900 widebodies on firm order, plus more than 60 A321XLRs – the latter due to join the fleet before the end of the year. Hundreds more short and medium-haul jets are also in the pipeline.

The airline is eager to expand, but it didn’t want to wait for the factory-fresh A350s to be delivered.

As a short-term workaround, the airline is leasing 787 Dreamliner jets from European carrier Norse Atlantic. These on-loan planes allowed IndiGo to start flights to Amsterdam and Manchester earlier this month.

Speaking to Skift in Manchester, Elbers opened the conversation with a quick reminder – costs determine the airfare and an airline’s positioning in the market. More typical short-haul IndiGo routes see an à la carte offering. It’s a “pay what you use” approach adopted by countless carriers around the world.

However, the nature of IndiGo’s intercontinental network expansion requires a different approach. It’s what Elbers calls his “fit-for-purpose” product development methodology. “At