On May 30, 2025, IndiGo, the Indian low-cost airline, unveiled an ambitious plan to expand its international operations significantly for the year 2026.
With plans to add at least ten new international routes in the coming year, IndiGo aims to raise its total number of international destinations to 50, as announced by the airline’s CEO, Pieter Elbers. This revelation was made during a press conference held prior to the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which IndiGo is hosting in Delhi from June 1 to June 3, 2025.
While some new destinations were previously mentioned, such as Mumbai (BOM) to Manchester (MAN) and Amsterdam (AMS), which are set to launch in July 2025, others have emerged unexpectedly.
IndiGo is also set to bolster its presence in Europe by introducing nonstop flights to London Gatwick (LGW), Athens (ATH), and Copenhagen (CPH). Additionally, the airline is planning to enhance its operations in Southeast Asia with a new route to Siem Reap, Cambodia (SIA), and is set to expand into Central Asia by reactivating services to Almaty (ALA) and Tashkent (TAS), along with adding four new destinations in the region.
Furthermore, IndiGo will ramp up capacity on several key international routes, including Tbilisi, Georgia (TBS), Denpasar Bali (DPS) in Indonesia, and Ho Chi Minh City (SGN) and Hanoi (HAN) in Vietnam.
Within India, IndiGo will initiate operations at Hindon (HDO) and Adampur (AIP) and plans to serve the two new major airports currently being developed, which will cater to the country’s largest cities: Noida (NDX) near Delhi and Navi Mumbai Airport (NMI), anticipating to be the first airline to operate from this new facility once it opens.
To accommodate this expansion, IndiGo is focused on progressively enhancing its fleet. Currently, the airline receives one new aircraft approximately every week and aims to operate a total of 600 aircraft by 2030 based on its current delivery schedule.
Additionally, IndiGo will damp-lease six Boeing B787 aircraft from Norse Atlantic Airways to support its long-haul expansion efforts. This arrangement will serve as a temporary solution until 2027, when IndiGo expects to begin receiving the first of 30 Airbus A350 aircraft it has ordered. Alongside the single-aisle Airbus A321XLRs, which will also be delivered soon, these aircraft will form the foundation of IndiGo’s long-haul fleet.
In tandem with these plans, IndiGo has announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Bangalore International Airport Ltd. (BIAL) to establish a maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) center at Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport (BLR). This new facility, which has been allocated 31 hectares of land, will service both the narrow-body and wide-body fleets of the airline.
Based on an article from aerotime.aero: https://www.aerotime.aero/articles/indigo-shares-details-of-upcoming-expansion-ten-new-international-destinations
