Qantas partner IndiGo eyes Australian routes with order for 60 Airbus A350s

IndiGo plans to shift "from a domestic carrier to a global player."

Posted: June 3, 2025 - 1:41 pm

IndiGo routes to Australia — Qantas partner IndiGo eyes Australian routes with order for 60 Airbus A350s

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POINT HACKS EXCLUSIVE | Already the largest airline in India, IndiGo is spreading its wings with a growing network of international flights. That network is expected to boom when the Airbus A350 enters the IndiGo fleet – and routes to Australia are potentially on the cards.

Speaking in Delhi at the invitation-only IATA AGM attended by Point Hacks, IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers has ambitious plans for the airline. Elbers used the event to announce a doubling of those Airbus A350 firm orders, from 30 to 60 widebody jets. Clearly, those planes need routes – and India to Australia could well be one of them.

I took the chance to ask Elbers where Australia sits in IndiGo’s plans. Ditto, its longer-term partnership with Qantas.

Potential IndiGo routes to Australia

Currently, IndiGo serves Australia by codesharing on Qantas’ services. Indigo also operates its own flights to Singapore, where travellers can connect onto Qantas – and vice versa. But how about seeing an aircraft in IndiGo colours touching down on Australian soil? Elbers has some thoughts on potential IndiGo routes to Australia.

“If you look for Australia, first of all, it has a huge Indian diaspora. And secondly, and that’s how we started to prepare for that. You say we have a limited partnership with Qantas,” Elbers quips at my question, highlighting that Qantas and IndiGo don’t currently have true reciprocal earn and burn. “I would say we have actually a very advanced partnership.”

“We fly from nine cities in India into Singapore, and from Singapore, we connect to the network of Qantas going into Australia. (It’s) a great opportunity for both parties to start developing. It’s creating a hub outside your own country, in terms of connecting that.”

As for IndiGo’s Airbus A321XLRs, reaching Australia would “probably not (be achievable) from Delhi, but from the south of India, it’ll have a range which at least reaches Australia. And obviously, with the A350. So if I speak about becoming a global aviation operator, and the market between Australia and India is there, clearly we would have a very serious look at direct flights with A350 to Australia as well.”

IndoGo has potential to launch Australian routes — IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers has big plans for long-haul.

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International flying without flatbeds

IndiGo may be inking a growing number of airline partnerships, but its cabin offerings don’t currently include flatbeds. Instead, the carrier has launched ‘IndiGo Stretch’, a seat offering akin to Business Class in a reclining seat. Elbers is expectedly quite fond of it, with the former KLM CEO taking aim at his home market.

“I would challenge you to take a domestic flight on Indigo Stretch … and compare it to pretty much any operator in Europe. Compare the two Business Class products with each other, and have a fair comparison between the two products. I think we’re having a product which very much fits for purpose, which helps us to establish a good position also in that segment.”

“We have seen what happened in other parts of the world, where kind of you have to be either this or that. I don’t think we have to do that; I don’t see that as a disadvantage. But … India is also changing, and therefore we’re adding the loyalty program, we’re adding selected Business Class on certain routes, and we see it now in international.”

“We don’t have flat beds, that’s true. But if you don’t have 18 flat beds, that doesn’t mean that the rest of the aircraft cannot be competitive. I think we have a product which is extremely fit for purpose, both for the Indian market, but very much so, also for the other markets we’ll operate in.”

If IndiGo did launch flights to Australia, it’d be up against Air India, as well as Qantas’ own direct flights. But IndiGo’s focus on emerging travel markets and a skew towards more cost-conscious flyers could see IndiGo attracting new travellers on routes to and from Australia.

IndiGo expects to receive its first Airbus A350 in 2027. As for where it’ll fly, IndiGo has time to lay out its plans.