- Growth, Challenges, and the Road Ahead : How IndiGo Used 2025 to Step onto the Global Stage
- Long-Haul Launches, Scale, and Strategic Learnings
- Building Scale, Global Reach, and Operational Resilience
By Sangeeta Saxena
New Delhi. 31 December 2025. Despite facing criticism and operational setbacks, brickbats have not dampened IndiGo’s spirit or diluted its core strengths. The airline has demonstrated resilience by swiftly stabilising operations after recent challenges and steadily returning to its hallmark performance of reliability and punctuality. Drawing on its robust processes, experienced workforce and a strong culture of operational discipline, IndiGo has worked methodically to restore network integrity and customer confidence. Its renewed focus on on-time performance and service consistency is once again visible across its domestic network, as the airline continues to ferry millions of Indians safely and efficiently to their destinations across the country. The ability to absorb disruption, learn from it, and bounce back reinforces IndiGo’s reputation as a dependable carrier and underlines its determination to stay true to its original track record.
As 2025 draws to a close, IndiGo marked the year as a defining chapter in its transformation from India’s largest domestic carrier into a fast-emerging global airline. The year witnessed accelerated international expansion as the airline’s entry into long-haul operations, sustained passenger growth and strategic investments across fleet, partnerships, cargo and MRO infrastructure made news. Alongside these milestones, IndiGo also navigated operational challenges that tested resilience and reinforced its focus on strengthening systems and customer trust. Together, the developments of 2025 reflected both the scale of IndiGo’s ambition and the maturity of its evolving global strategy. IndiGo, India’s preferred airline, concludes 2025 as a landmark year in its journey towards becoming a truly global carrier. The year saw accelerated network expansion, the launch of long-haul service, consistent passenger growth, international recognition and important operational learnings for IndiGo. The airline aims to focus on building on the momentum and continuing its growth path as it enters the new year.
Pieter Elbers, Chief Executive Officer, IndiGo, said, “Having earlier laid the building blocks of our strategy – Towards New Heights and Across New Frontiers, the year 2025 witnessed IndiGo taking big strides in the execution of our strategy and advancing to the next phase to become a major airline of global scale. We have progressed on all fronts – customers, product, domestic and international network, cargo, MRO, India’ hub function, etc. and we have managed to grow from strength to strength, under the guidance of the government. Big thank you to our customers for choosing IndiGo and all my 65,000 colleagues for their relentless efforts and dedication to our customers.”
Guided by its core customer commitments—on-time performance, a courteous and hassle-free travel experience, affordable fares, an extensive network, and an uncompromising focus on safety—IndiGo is set to conclude calendar year 2025 having carried more than 123 million passengers. This represents an increase of over 10 million customers compared to 113 million in 2024, further cementing the airline’s standing among the world’s top ten airlines by scale.
The year also brought periods of industry-wide operational stress, including a significant disruption between 3 and 5 December 2025 that adversely affected passengers. IndiGo acknowledged the inconvenience caused and issued a sincere apology to its customers. The airline moved swiftly to stabilise its network and restore normal operations and remains focused on enhancing operational robustness and resilience. IndiGo is also fully cooperating with the regulator’s committee and has been providing all information sought as part of the review process.
He added, “As we step into the New Year, there’s opportunity to reflect on the story so far, take stock of the progress made and learn from the operational challenges we encountered. This is the point in our journey where our renewed focus will drive further scale, innovation, and impact across new frontiers, keeping our customers at the heart of everything”.
In it’s year end review Indigo recalled not only it’s but also the nation’s leap when the airline hosted the IATA Annual General Meeting in Delhi. By welcoming the global aviation community to India, IndiGo highlighted the country’s rising stature and growing influence on the international aviation landscape. Aligned with its international expansion strategy, IndiGo made a decisive entry into long-haul operations during the year. The airline launched non-stop direct services linking India with Manchester and Amsterdam, followed by new connections to Copenhagen and London. These additions significantly strengthened direct air links between India and Europe. Over the course of 2025, IndiGo added 10 new international destinations and inaugurated 30 new international routes, underscoring its commitment to broadening global connectivity and enhancing choice for travelers.
The launch of long-haul services was supported by the induction of wide-body Boeing 787-9 aircraft through a partnership with Norse Atlantic Airways, marking a major milestone in IndiGo’s growth trajectory. To complement these longer flights, the airline also enhanced its onboard offering, introducing complimentary hot meals on select international routes, reflecting an evolution in its product proposition for extended journeys.
IndiGo continued to widen its international presence during the year with the addition of destinations such as Seychelles, Krabi, Madinah, Fujairah and Siem Reap. The airline also played a leading role in restoring direct air connectivity between India and China by resuming flights to Guangzhou from Kolkata and launching services from Delhi. Looking ahead, IndiGo is preparing to commence non-stop flights to Athens from 23 January 2026. This launch will also mark the international debut of India’s first Airbus A321XLR, opening up significant opportunities to connect the country with new medium- and long-haul markets.
While international growth accelerated, the domestic market continued to remain core to IndiGo’s network strategy. During the year, IndiGo commenced operations as the launch carrier at Navi Mumbai International Airport, and new airports in Purnea and Rewa, strengthening connectivity to emerging regional centres. The airline further added Hindon, Adampur (Jalandhar), Kishangarh and Bikaner to its domestic network and is preparing to commence operations from Noida International Airport (Jewar) in due course, reinforcing its commitment to India’s evolving aviation infrastructure. Together, that brings IndiGo’s network to a total of 139 destinations at year-end with 97 domestic and 42 international destinations.
IndiGo reinforced its long-term fleet strategy by doubling its order for Airbus A350-900 wide-body aircraft to 60, reflecting confidence in the long-term growth of international travel from India. The airline also marked one year of IndiGoStretch, its tailor-made dual-class cabin product, which continues to be progressively expanded across key domestic and international routes, with a total of 42 aircraft operating with the dual-class offering. In parallel, IndiGo completed one year of BluChip, its loyalty programme, which has grown to over 9 million members, strengthening customer engagement and brand affinity.
The airline continued it’s global march by signing and strengthening codeshare partnerships with leading international carriers, unlocking seamless connectivity across North America, Europe and Asia. These partnerships enhance network access, improve customer choice and reinforce IndiGo’s global value proposition across key markets globally.
IndiGo also signed an MOU with the Bangalore International Airport Ltd. (BIAL) for building world-class maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) infrastructure which will help in shaping the future of Indian aviation by developing a holistic, self-reliant aviation ecosystem in the nation.Flying more than one million customers every 3 days, the airline expects to welcome over 123 million customers and transport more than 55,000 tonnes of cargo in the calendar year 2025. IndiGo operated over 2,200 flights per day.
The airline in it’s report reiterated that during the year, IndiGo was recognised as the Best Airline in India and South Asia at the Skytrax World Airline Awards, reaffirming customers’ trust in the brand. IndiGo also continues to rank among the top 20 airlines globally generating over USD 10 billion in annual revenue, reflecting its scale, efficiency and sustained growth built over nearly two decades of operations. Anchored with a sharper focus on future growth, IndiGo is all set to induct India’s first Airbus A321XLR, launch non-stop services to Athens and continue international expansion in the new year, while densifying its domestic network.
The airline stated in the report that the learnings from the year gone-by enables IndiGo to enhance its operational reliability, delivering on its strategy of “Towards New Heights and Across New Frontiers” and staying true to its purpose of giving wings to the nation.
Looking ahead to 2026, IndiGo enters the next phase of its journey with renewed momentum and sharper strategic focus. Anchored by long-haul expansion, induction of next-generation aircraft, deeper international partnerships, and continued domestic densification, the airline is positioning itself as a major global aviation player with India at its core. The learnings from 2025—both from successes and operational challenges—have strengthened IndiGo’s resolve to enhance reliability, resilience, and customer experience, while steadily expanding India’s footprint on the global aviation map.
