Indian low cost carrier company, IndiGo has placed its order of 50 turboprop planes. This is a part of its expansion drive into regions of smaller population, which is in sync with the regional connectivity program announced by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
IndiGo, India's low cost and also the biggest airline company has outlined its order of 50 turboprop planes, which is estimated to cost $1.3 billion, Bloomberg reported. This addition of the turboprops is a part of its expansion drive to cater to the people of regions with smaller population. The carrier company has just signed the term sheet for acquiring the ATR 72-600 aircraft. And, it is expected that by the end of this year, the first planes will be in operation.
It is worth mentioning here that before its purchase decision of the turboprops, it was due to expand its operations by the end of this fiscal with 170 Airbus SE A320-series narrow-body aircrafts. Remarkably, the addition of these aircrafts, as well as, the turboprops is expected to increase its capacity in a year by 25 percent. This expansion move also comes at a time when the share value of the company had dropped and it also reported a 25 percent decline in its quarterly earnings
Notably, the Gurgaon based company initially restrained from becoming a part of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's regional connectivity program that aims to connect the under-served Indian cities. The program announced will have airfares as low as INR2500 for air travel between smaller town and the government plans to provide the viability gap for these non-profit routes. IndiGo's rival, SpiceJet Ltd. is already tapping the regional demands with its Bombardier Inc. Q400 turboprop planes, Business Standard reported.
However, IndiGo followed suit and the company's President, Aditya Ghosh has said in a statement, "We are embarking on a journey to build a nationwide regional network and connect cities that have not benefited from the growth in Indian aviation."
