‘India becoming a convenient hub for travel between SE Asia & Middle East’

India is slowly becoming a convenient hub for travel between Southeast Asia and the Middle East as airlines prefer to transfer people by connecting through Indian cities, a top industry official said.

There is huge growth in India and many domestic routes are used by airlines for connectivity, V Sumantran, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of InterGlobe Aviation Ltd (IndiGo Airlines) said here on Saturday.

Delivering his address at the 65th Institute Day of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, he said that IndiGo Airlines started off as a low-cost airline in 2006 and has made the largest single order in the aviation industry by ordering 500 aircrafts in France.

“India needed an airline that will provide affordable travel for many of us and the net result we can see. Even now we see India really moving forward with a lot more speed on infrastructure development. We have about 140 operating airports now and that would become 220 by 2030. We are seeing a huge increase in regional travel,” Sumantran, an IIT-Madras alumni, said.

IndiGo is a very young airline by global airline standards. But the entire platform of IndiGo has been affordable fares, courteous service, on-time performance, and a “very well networked” route system which India needed, he said.

Citing an example that a lot of airlines were transferring people from places like Bangkok via India to reach Jeddah or Dubai in the Middle East by connecting through Indian cities, he said, “India is slowly becoming a convenient hub for travel between South East Asia and the Middle East.”

“So, there is huge growth that we can see coming out of this which has boldly allowed us to place an order of 500 aircraft that is the single largest aircraft order ever made in aviation history,” he said.

Maintaining that IndiGo has the largest network of women pilots in the world, he said the amount of carbon dioxide emission per-seat-per-kilometer was also the lowest in the world by the airline.

“We (IndiGo) now find ourselves as the third most valuable airline in the world, after Ryan Air and Delta (Air Lines). We were able to earn our place among the biggest and most valuable airlines in the world. The message here is India can offer lessons on how to grow with responsibility — achieve more with less and secondly, well before 2047, many of our enterprises can be globally successful,” he said. Meanwhile, several awards were presented to former students of IIT-Madras in recognition of their accomplishments in their respective fields. Accordingly, the Early Career Research and Development Award which carries a grant of INR 25 lakh was presented to professor Anubhab Roy, Department of Applied Mechanics and Biomedical Engineering and professor Tarak Kumar Patra, Department of Chemical Engineering. Defence Secretary Giridhar Aramane, an alumnus of IIT-Madras and Director Gankidi Madhusudhan Reddy were presented with the ‘Distinguished Alumnus Award’ for 2024. Green Building Council of India Managing Director Mili Majumdar, ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company Ltd Chief Investment Officer Sankaran Naren also received their award on the occasion.