A few weeks ago, IndiGo announced that the airline would leave its proverbial association with being a no-frills carrier behind and launch a new tailormade “business product” on India’s busiest, and business routes. Today, we finally got a glimpse into what that product was going to be.

IndiGo enters Hybridasiation era

Late last week, I compiled an published last week that IndiGo had on offer to select its new way forward. The airline has chosen to go forward in a Hybrid fashion. A Hybrid airline is not an officially defined term, but it refers to an airline with a low-cost business strategy but one that provides some features of a full-service airline. JetBlue, in the US, was perhaps the first “Hybrid Carrier”, and since then, there have been many, including, for instance, WestJet in Canada. The features usually include a business-class cabin and a loyalty programme.

IndiGo announced the launch of its business class and loyalty programme today at an event for its partners, investors, bankers, and select media personnel. The airline will move from a one-class configuration across all its aircraft to offering a second cabin on a few aircraft, equipped with a bigger seat and associated perks.

IndiGo’s new Business Product: IndiGoStretch

Today, IndiGo announced the details of their new front-cabin product. While earlier on, IndiGo used to sell its extra legroom seats on the first row and emergency exit on its A320-family aircraft, called IndiGo XL; the airline is now going to have proper business-class seats on some of its A321neo aircraft.

The airline has selected the Recaro R5 as its new offering. IndiGo will offer the coupe-style, 2×2 seats on 45 aircraft in the coming months, with the first one set to be inducted into service in November 2024. The airline also had the seat on display at the event venue.

In our writeup published last week, we predicted the Recaro R5 seat selection. But this is not your conventional Business Class offering, nor does it have the full-product suite compared to the full-service airline business model. Here is what to expect on IndiGoStretch:

• Seat Pitch of 38 inches
• Seat width of 21.3 inches
• Six-way adjustable headrest with neck support
• 5″ recline
• Electronic Device Holder
• 60W USB-C Power supply along with a 3-pin universal power outlet

The airline will also offer the following perks for those booking IndiGoStretch:

• No convenience fee
• Vegetarian meal box, curated by Oberoi Hotels
• Choice of (soft) beverages
• Advance seat selection
• Priority check-in
• Anytime boarding.

The airline had a selection of its business class box meals available for sampling at the venue, which the Oberoi Hotels has curated for them. This is how it would look on board.

IndiGo has, it seems, taken inspiration from its boss’s ex-carrier, KLM, which has been offering meal boxes in Intra-Europe Business Class since 2018 (designed by Marcel Wanders).

The airline is not losing its north star, which guides it in adding as many seats as possible in the cabin. The aircraft with the IndiGoStretch Cabin will have 12 seats up front, with three rows of 4 seats each and 208 seats at the back. If you look closely, the seat pitch is 38 inches, 2″ less than Air India’s new Business Class offering on the A320neos and 3″ less than Vistara. Of course, it is a hybrid carrier, so we shouldn’t be a stickler for the space offered as long as it is comfortable. How it pans out, only experiencing it will tell.

Lounge access is one of the other features that has been deducted compared to a “conventional” business class. Of course, the airline pays for this if it chooses to, but it is also a smart choice not to start with it, in line with the airline’s cost-conscious, hard-bargain-driven approach. An extra baggage allowance in comparison to Economy is also missing, at least in the initial announcements.

The airline has fitted electronic device holders, allowing customers to consume content on their devices while on board. IndiGo deflected questions on the way forward with their trials of the streaming IFE when asked.

Pieter Elbers, Chief Executive Officer of IndiGo, commented,

IndiGo is embarking on a new path of its incredible growth story by introducing a tailor-made business product on the nation’s busiest and business routes. With India’s soaring economy and the evolving aspirations of the Indian society, we believe it’s time for IndiGo to redefine business class in India, increasing availability of this service for the nation. IndiGo Stretch will provide our customers the on-time performance and hassle-free and courteous experience they can expect from us, while adding more space and increased priority at a great value for money.

While this Business Class fitment is intended to be for domestic routes, I won’t be surprised if these aircraft find their way to regional markets such as Dubai and Maldives once enough aircraft are fitted with the new product. Also, while Pieter won’t say more about the Business Class plans, saying “he is saving some announcements for later”, the airline clearly will move forward with a premium product on its A321XLR, as well as the A350-900s too. The A321neo is just the start, so that they start building the revenue pricing models and the experience in serving the premium customers on a larger scale, later.

Open for sale on August 6, 2024

IndiGo is sticking to a mid-November 2024 launch for the launch of this product; however, it refuses to give out an exact date for now. The airline will launch ticket sales at a special price of INR 18,000 on August 6, 2024, on its website.

This will be followed by a gradual scale-up, and within twelve months after its introduction, the product will operate on most metro-to-metro routes. All 12 routes are expected to be served by the end of 2025.

Bottomline

IndiGo is making a step change to how it operates, launching a new front cabin called IndiGoStretch on select routes in November 2024. The airline intends to roll out this new product on twelve major routes by the end of 2025, with the installation of 45 to-be-delivered A321neo aircraft.

What do you make of IndiGo’s move into its Hybrid Era, and the launch of IndiGoStretch?

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