The Airline Flying Above the Storm

While others are retrenching, IndiGo is spending big to expand in a post-Covid world

- Anurag Kotoky

The airlines have seen more than their share of casualties during the pandemic, as travel stopped and carriers’ finances nose-dived. That’s forced many survivors to concentrate on cutting costs, trimming payrolls, and walking away from aircraft orders, but IndiGo, the airline operated by InterGlobe Aviation Ltd., is doing something few of its peers would risk right now: going shopping.

Since taking to the skies in 2006, no-frills IndiGo has grown to control more than half of all local traffic in India, consistently making money in the process. It’s betting it can bounce back stronger once the virus is tamed and ordering billions of dollars of equipment to be delivered after the current crisis.

The airline is in talks with Pratt & Whitney and CFM International, a joint venture of General Electric and France’s Safran, to provide engines to power about 150 new Airbus A320neo jets, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the negotiations are private. Based on the size of IndiGo’s last engine order—a $20 billion transaction with CFM covering 280 planes that was the largest engine order ever— the agreement could be worth about $10.7 billion, including service, repair, and maintenance.