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Outgoing IATA director general will become CEO of IndiGo soon after Farnborough closes, returning to airline management to oversee IndiGo’s next phase of growth, including the planned addition of widebodies to the Indian carrier’s fleet.
He believes that the Indian carrier—and Indian aviation as a whole—has a rapidly expanding future ahead of it.
IndiGo has 60 Airbus A350-900s on order, plus 40 more purchase options. Meshing widebody operations with what is currently a narrowbody fleet will be “a huge challenge,” Walsh said, “but I think we can make it work.”
Apart from the impending A350 arrivals, the airline has a huge orderbook for Airbus A320neo-family aircraft—its 2023 order for 500 was the largest ever order placed by a single airline with the European manufacturer.
Walsh said accepting the role at the carrier "was an easy decision in the end."
"It's a fantastic company. They've done some amazing things," he said. "We chatted and shook hands after about an hour. It was just too big an opportunity. I've been talking about India for years and about how exciting the industry is.
“I’m inheriting a really, really low-cost business. I’m looking forward to getting started.”
Part of his optimism lies in the fact that a nation of 1.4 billion people has a civil airliner fleet of just 50 widebodies, operated by national carrier Air India.
Over the past year or so, IndiGo has dipped its toe into widebody operations with the damp-lease of six Boeing 787-9s from Norwegian carrier Norse Atlantic.
However, the recent sharp rise in fuel prices, combined with a continuing ban on Indian carriers flying through Pakistani airspace and further diversions around the conflict-ridden Gulf region, escalated IndiGo’s long-haul costs and led to a cutback in its routes between India and Europe.
When the A350s start to arrive in early 2028, “there’s a lot of places those aircraft can fly to, and Europe is definitely going to see a lot of these A350s. There’s a huge Indian diaspora. When you look at India, it’s an easy way to evaluate where to fly. They travel back to India—and want to travel back more than once,” Walsh said.
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