Indigo sees a considerable opportunity for freight movements between India and Europe, while it is launching its first service from Mumbai to Amsterdam and Manchester from July.
The airline will serve a wet rented Boeing 787 on the routes that can carry up to 18-20 tons of freight in any direction.
“The possibility for freight for us is important. It is nice together with the make in India campaign that becomes increasingly prominent in terms of India that becomes the global production hub,” said Pieter Elbers, Chief Executive Officer of Indigo, in a post -conference of the fourth quarter.
Indian airports treated 3.7 million tons of freight in FY25, a growth of 10.5 percent compared to the previous year. While domestic freight traffic grew by 5.6 percent, the international freight that was treated by airports increased by 13.7 percent in the period.
Nevertheless, the share of Indian carriers in the general international freight traffic from/to India in a few figures and Elbers is of the opinion that the introduction of new European service will help to grow the general share of Indian carriers. “That will be our focus,” he said.
Growth in fleet, improved use of cargo ships and international tie-ups has helped indigo grow freight activities. The airline added 67 aircraft to its fleet (including wet leased aircraft) that fell to the total count to 434 from March. Partnerships with Air France-KLM and FedEx have also contributed to increasing traffic. The draw with Air France-KLM would be particularly useful if Indigo started its flights to Amsterdam, the primary hub of KLM.
While Delhi was the first choice for the launch of the European flights, because it offers more connections, the airline for Mumbai opted for Pakistan’s airspace for Indian carriers.
Elbers admitted that the connection network of the airline in Mumbai is not that strong compared to Delhi, but there are some good connections with South India (from Mumbai) with traffic flows from Europe. “We made the evaluation and thought it was a good way to start our activities,” he said.
Indigo has rented a Boeing 787 aircraft from Norse Atlantic and expects to receive another five in the second half of FY26. Elbers said that with the Boeing 787 aircraft, airlines to Europe from one of his Indian hub to Europe would allow and still have time to complete the activities of remaining five aircraft.
Asked for brand awareness in Europe, Elbers said that Indigo receives customers from the code share partners Air France-KLM, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic on his domestic flights. “I am sure that our competitive rates from Amsterdam and Manchester will stimulate Europe to India and even afterwards,” he added.
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Published on 25 May 2025
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