# Forecast for 2026 Skies feat. Ajay Awtaney (Founder & Editor, LiveFromALounge.com)

An episode of [The Indian #AvGeek](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1759764345), 28 Dec 2025, 1 h 07 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/f945ecd8/podcast/play/113126798/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-11-26%2Ff504e47c-6246-82c1-bb63-875a3cabf3f4.mp3

Episode 57: The 2026 Flight Plan with Ajay Awtaney As 2025 draws to a close, the Indian skies look vastly different than it did twelve months ago. We’ve seen the "arrival" of India on the global stage at the IATA AGM in Delhi, but we’ve also grappled with the sombre reality of the AI171 tragedy and operational meltdowns at IndiGo that tested passenger loyalty to its limit. In this deep-dive season finale, Vishal sits down with LiveFromALounge’s founder and editor, Ajay Awtaney, to dissect a year of extreme highs and lows. We explore: • The IndiGo Pivot: From "IndiGoStretch" to the "BluChip" loyalty program—is the LCC/hybrid giant successfully poaching corporate flyers, or just rewarding its own? • The Air India Integration: Post-Vistara, has the "premium culture" survived the merger, or are passengers drifting toward foreign carriers? • Infrastructure Wars: With Navi Mumbai finally open and Noida/Jewar facing more delays, what does the “dual airport" reality look like for Mumbai and Delhi NCR flyers? • The 2026 Outlook: The XLR’s 8-hour marathon to Athens, Air India’s massive retrofit rollout, and the battle for the Indian credit card wallet. • Loyalty wars—BluChip vs Maharaja Club, new credit card tie-ups, and Emirates eyeing India. • Akasa’s quiet rise—targeting Singapore, Vietnam, and Uzbekistan while the big two are distracted. From alliances to loyalty programs, from Athens’ narrowbody long-haul to New Delhi’s triple-airport reality, Ajay and Vishal decode the future of Indian aviation in 2026. The Indian AvGeek streams on all major podcast apps. Ajay Awtaney - @livefromalounge Vishal Mehra - @vishal1mehra

## Transcript

[0:05] Hello, hello my fellow geeks. Welcome to episode number 57 of
[0:12] The Indian NAV Geek. My name is Vishal Mehra.
[0:16] We've reached the top of our descent for 2025 and what a
[0:21] turbulent, transformative year it has been.
[0:25] The purple has officially merged into the red and a brand new
[0:29] airport code is finally flashing on our radar screens in Mumbai.
[0:34] But we aren't here to do a post flight inspection of the past.
[0:39] Today we are pushing the throttles to toga power and
[0:43] climbing straight into 2026. Joining me in the cockpit to
[0:49] read the navigational charts is a man who spends more time in
[0:53] one A than in his own living room.
[0:56] Whether he's reviewing a first class suite or dissecting
[1:00] domestic crew shortage, he is the ultimate authority on all
[1:05] things up in the air. Please welcome the man who's
[1:09] quite literally always live from a lounge.
[1:13] Ajay Avtane. Welcome to the Indian app geek.
[1:16] Ajay, how have you been? Well, very well on the road as
[1:21] expected of me. And now just as we speak, trying
[1:25] to wrap up the air, hopefully not having to get around any
[1:29] more planes at this point of time.
[1:31] Ajay, how do you think the year 2025 was for Indian aviation and
[1:35] global aviation at large? We saw extreme highs, including
[1:40] the IITA AGM in Delhi and of course, extreme lows like the
[1:46] AI171 accident and Indigo's operational meltdown earlier
[1:51] this month. What's your take on the year?
[1:53] You know, when you talk about it, it's not just these.
[1:57] Both of these were actually highlight events, but these were
[1:59] not all. I think if you look at the as a
[2:03] whole, there's a lot of progress that has been made.
[2:07] Of course, setbacks, but a lot of progress has been made.
[2:11] I think overall, a few bullet points, House of people want to
[2:18] look at it. I think #1 Air India has made a
[2:21] lot of good progress in terms of, you know, product getting
[2:29] better and so on. So I think on the product front
[2:35] they are getting better. They, they did a very good job
[2:38] with the A320 refurbish. And you know, now next day I
[2:45] think is the thing where they will restart.
[2:49] We'll start with the A321 retrofit and so on.
[2:53] So what that reflects to me is when you give them the time and
[2:57] the resources, they come up with a good job there, number one.
[3:01] Number two, of course, you know, on the Air India front, there
[3:06] was this very unfortunate, the AI171 crash.
[3:11] There's no two ways about it. We still don't know the whole
[3:16] story. Obviously, it will take some
[3:17] time. I know people obviously tend to
[3:21] blame some of the other party. I just tend to say that we don't
[3:26] know the whole story yet. And obviously we're looking
[3:30] forward to, I'm sure we're all looking forward to know what
[3:32] happened and press all the departed souls.
[3:37] And yeah, on the Indigo front, I think they're doing a pretty
[3:40] good job expanding through the year.
[3:43] They were. So, I mean, I'm sure we'll talk
[3:46] in details later The the stretch product and the
[3:51] internationalization and then the unfortunate meltdown in the
[3:56] start of this month. So I think, yeah, they've been
[4:02] largely on the right path, except, you know, the flaws in
[4:07] their strategy and the the whole not I think the whole thing
[4:12] where they did not keep enough buffer of pilots on standby
[4:16] obviously and through in the end.
[4:21] Yeah, that's Indian aviation I think around the globe, a lot of
[4:26] expansion story really. I think one of the things I
[4:31] personally can't vouch for but other people tell me is that it
[4:35] seems there's a little bit of a slow down in terms of travel
[4:38] appetite. But when I get out on a plane,
[4:42] I, I can't seem to validate that.
[4:46] So I guess something, you know, maybe you have a view or other
[4:50] people have a view. Need to hear what people think
[4:52] about the the story out there. All the executives I speak to, I
[4:57] haven't heard of a slowdown yet. Maybe there is something
[5:01] bubbling underneath. Let's start the episode with
[5:04] Indigo Ajay. We have spent years asking when
[5:09] will Indigo go premium? In 2025 they did finally with
[5:15] Indigo Stretch and of course they also launched their FFP
[5:20] blue chip. Now that the product is flying
[5:23] on domestic metro routes as well as some international ones, is
[5:27] it actually pulling the corporate traveller away from
[5:30] the from the new Air India or is it just upgrading the existing
[5:36] Indigo loyalist? See the thing with Indigo
[5:39] stretches, I think there are two polar views about what
[5:43] stretches. So people seem to think
[5:46] stretches business class because the seats look like premium,
[5:51] like business class when you get on board.
[5:54] But stretches different things on different, how do you want to
[5:59] call it different planes. So I think on a narrow body
[6:02] plane stretches more a challenger to business class
[6:07] because a seat is a what we call a business class seat.
[6:10] But the product is what I would call a premium economy product,
[6:12] you know, and Indigo being Indigo does not want to
[6:17] complicate it's own life. So the product is standardized
[6:22] like a veg meal and so on. And not everyone can appreciate
[6:28] that because a lot of, I'm sure we've seen tweets with the
[6:33] including from Kiran Mazumdar Shaw.
[6:36] I think about how this is a bad business class product.
[6:41] But overall, personally, I think it's a great product.
[6:43] I, I flew them a couple of times this year as well and I flew
[6:46] them last year as well when they launched the product.
[6:49] I think they're doing a great job with the product, which like
[6:52] I told you is a middle of business and premium economy
[6:57] kind of operation. That's number one on the
[7:01] international front, the whole product is great.
[7:04] And I think, you know, again, the key differentiation comes on
[7:11] the white bodies, which they're borrowing from North right now.
[7:15] So yeah, again, I haven't found a reason to fault them because
[7:19] like a price which is significantly or at least
[7:22] materially discounted from the other player in the market.
[7:26] I think, you know, it's a it's a decent attempt at a premium
[7:31] cabin product, which is not true business.
[7:36] So yeah, I think coming to your second part, which is are they
[7:40] able to switch people? I don't think that trend has
[7:44] started yet. I have a feeling at this point
[7:48] of time they're trying to get new people to try out stretch.
[7:55] That was a journey that they started in 2024 November.
[7:59] I think the angle two stretches not to just kind of get people
[8:03] to, you know, switch from Air India, but to create a new
[8:07] market, which will be OK to give away some of the bells and
[8:11] whistles, but is OK to travel on A, on their product and B, on
[8:18] the fact that it's not a true like I think hot meals plus
[8:23] lounge kind of experience like you'd get with the other guys.
[8:28] So I believe that they're still working.
[8:32] That's a work in progress on the domestic markets and on the
[8:35] international markets. I'm sure the you know, the take
[8:38] is higher because a lesser number of frequencies you'll
[8:43] only be flying to a destination once or twice a day, right?
[8:45] I mean, and the fact that I think as your stage length
[8:51] grows, as the time on the flight grows, your, your preference for
[8:56] buying a, a bigger seat grows as compared to, you know, how you
[9:02] would do it on, let's say, a Bombay daily flight.
[9:05] So, yeah, I'm, I'm guessing they're still finding.
[9:08] I'm not guessing that they're still finding their feet.
[9:11] They found their feet. They found their niche.
[9:13] It's just that people still have to, you know, come around and
[9:17] understand the product. And I think Indigo's more than
[9:19] happy to play the long game and keep discounting the product so
[9:27] that people can try it out. On the long game, JetBlue just
[9:31] opened its first ever branded airport lounge called Blue House
[9:36] I think on the 18th of December at JFK.
[9:39] Do you foresee Indigo getting in the game?
[9:42] Perhaps when their full blown business class product, which is
[9:46] expected on the A-350, starts flying?
[9:51] That is a yes and no answer. OK.
[9:54] I mean ideally what they've done right now with the stretch on
[9:57] the internationals is they have tagged along lounge access, OK,
[10:03] international white bodies only mind you, not like if you're
[10:06] flying Delhi, Singapore on the AT21, you're not going to have
[10:11] it. But if you're flying Delhi,
[10:13] London or Delhi Amsterdam or whatever, Bombay, Amsterdam,
[10:17] sorry, you will get that lounge access.
[10:21] So that is a very simple play into tapping into the full
[10:29] service market, OK, where other people are entitled to all of
[10:32] these things. Now coming to the lounge part, I
[10:37] don't think we will see an Indigo lounge for domestic
[10:42] passengers anytime soon because it's just a cost.
[10:50] You know, we might see it for international and then it
[10:54] depends on which is the primary hub.
[10:56] The primary hub being, I mean at this point of time, the primary
[10:59] hub for the white bodies is actually Mumbai, not Delhi
[11:02] because of the Pakistan airspace closure.
[11:05] So where that long game is going to be for them, that's one part.
[11:09] The second part of that is that even there I don't see it coming
[11:14] anytime soon because I think it really will have to be a dire
[11:22] necessity for them to be able to do or do want to do it at this
[11:28] point in time. I think they're very happy
[11:29] paying the the other lounges, which is the airport owned
[11:35] lounges for their service. And even I don't know if they
[11:42] started this or not, but Peter Elvis, when I met him on and
[11:45] after the first flight to Amsterdam, oh, sorry, to
[11:49] Manchester. He said that, you know, they
[11:53] intend to offer two kind of tickets. 1 is like, you know, 1
[11:58] lesser than others. And the lesser one will not have
[12:02] lounge access. The higher price one will have
[12:07] the lounge access, but not the lesser 1.
[12:09] So I don't think they need or they have the economies of scale
[12:13] at this point of time for international lounges and the
[12:16] domestic side, I don't think they need a lounge because
[12:20] either their customers, the well heeled ones have access via
[12:24] credit cards or you know, and the others just don't need.
[12:30] It December's operational meltdown showed us the cracks in
[12:34] the fortress as they induct XLR's next month and possibly in
[12:41] 2027, the A3 50s come in. Are they operationally ready for
[12:47] the complexity of wide body long haul if they struggled with
[12:52] domestic rostering this year? It won't.
[12:55] I mean, it won't be wet at least then.
[12:58] Anytime or whenever they are ready for the wide body
[13:00] operations, let's keep in fact that there's certain multiples
[13:06] everyone operates with, right? I mean like for a, for a
[13:10] domestic plane you would need whatever four, sorry, 6 pairs of
[13:18] people to rotate one plane on an average six or seven set of
[13:23] group. Similarly, whatever the number
[13:26] is on international, you know, I don't know at this point of
[13:32] time, but I don't think that will happen is that they will
[13:36] have the same crew operating domestic and international.
[13:38] So domestic and the white body feet, I mean the the other one
[13:44] they will. So what will most probably
[13:48] happen is a cut out of the current pilot's or newly ones
[13:55] will be made available to operate the A3 50s whenever
[13:59] these start. And yeah, I don't think there is
[14:04] a, you know, then beyond that there is a rostring issue
[14:08] because now you have to, you know, account for X number of
[14:13] pilots and these are always available to you because now
[14:16] they're only operating the white body.
[14:19] Unless they decide to cut the margin too thin like perhaps
[14:24] they did last month or sorry, earlier this month, I don't
[14:29] think there will be a problem. Plus now that the the tree has
[14:34] been shook, the and and then it goes kind of in the public is
[14:39] A&B internally, they have realized that, you know, they
[14:43] couldn't really keep such a lean operation where they did not
[14:49] have buffer to staff the planes. I don't think they will.
[14:53] I hope they will not let the situation, you know, happen ever
[15:01] again. Yeah.
[15:03] In public and regulatory gaze, quite a bit of yeah, you know,
[15:09] I, I. Keep telling people, you know,
[15:11] that I I tweeted about this as well that yeah, they saved a few
[15:16] crores when not staffing some more people.
[15:19] But the outcome of that is perhaps in, we don't know the
[15:24] full financial impact, right? I mean, you had to pay
[15:28] compensation to people, you had to kind of, you know, refund
[15:32] people number one and two and whatever.
[15:35] I'm sure they will get some sort of a fine out of this.
[15:39] Whether the Competition Commission will put it or
[15:42] whether, you know, the PIL would come with a fine or the DGCA
[15:47] will put it. The jury is open.
[15:49] I don't know which or all of which body will bodies will find
[15:53] them, but I'm sure they're not getting away Scott free out of
[15:56] this, Yeah. Absolutely.
[16:01] Ajay. The Vistara brand is officially
[16:04] retired now. Looking back at the year, how
[16:08] successful do you think was the transfer of Vistara culture into
[16:13] Air India? Did the and and like we were
[16:15] just discussing about Indigo, do you think the premium passenger
[16:19] stayed or did we see also a drift or a transfer to foreign
[16:25] carriers first of all? Personally, in my view and I,
[16:29] you've known me a while now, we started trying to create a very
[16:34] customer centric product, but also in the, I think it was
[16:40] sometimes it was patchy, you know, it was not fully in full
[16:44] bloom. And that comes with how you
[16:47] know, over time when you mature as a organization, they never
[16:51] got the opportunity to do that. So the Vistara culture was sort
[16:57] of more customer centric than Air India, but it was not fully
[17:01] there. So that's Part 1 of your answer
[17:05] now was it transferred? I don't think so.
[17:09] I think you know how all big organizations happened, they
[17:15] were I think that fire in the belly to really be customer
[17:19] centric did not kind of come to Air India when they merged
[17:24] starting into itself. So that's the simple thing
[17:30] around that because I think Air India has a long way to go on
[17:35] customer centricity sort of, and we'll see what they come up with
[17:39] over a period of time. 2025 unfortunately will be remembered
[17:45] for the AI171 tragedy and the subsequent safety audits.
[17:50] I know we started the chat by underpinning that.
[17:53] We don't know the full story yet, but do you think that
[17:57] incident forced a structural change in the Dgca's oversight
[18:03] or are we still reacting rather than preventing?
[18:07] I'm not Privy. To what exactly happened, You
[18:10] know, just like the rest of us, I would expect that they're kind
[18:17] of starting to take a deeper look at compliance and, you
[18:25] know, airworthiness. But if you remember just this
[18:31] month, it came to light that they had a plane operating with
[18:34] the without the regulatory clearances and everything that
[18:38] certificate and did like 6 or 8 flights without that.
[18:42] So kind of shook me off if that was really being taken as
[18:47] seriously as it should be. I mean, we can find a reason to
[18:51] justify that. But look, that's not ever going.
[18:56] I mean, it's inexcusable that you're not doing your paperwork.
[19:00] So I don't think they're really kind of got in their act
[19:06] together. Or maybe I expect too much of
[19:10] them to just be in compliance with all the laws of the land at
[19:14] this point of time. Yeah, quite an.
[19:17] Unbelievable chain of events there.
[19:20] Back in June of this year, hosting the IITA.
[19:23] AGM was India's arrival moment if one can say that.
[19:27] Even the Prime Minister was there for the closing keynote.
[19:30] Beyond the photo OPS, did that event actually translate into
[19:34] any tangible policy shifts for Indian carriers regarding
[19:38] bilateral rights or supply chain priorities?
[19:42] I know the big Indigo, Air France, KLM, Virgin Atlantic,
[19:48] sort of an alliance came out of it, but what were your highlight
[19:53] moments? Event was a coming off moment.
[19:57] So I think, you know, that went well.
[20:01] I was there. But beyond that, I, I don't
[20:05] think you know, beyond that, anything tangible came apart
[20:10] from bringing India out to people who wouldn't think of
[20:16] India before, you know? I mean, the big alliance that
[20:20] you're talking about is yet to take off because they're no code
[20:23] shared with Delta, KLM or you know were in Atlantic at this
[20:27] point of time. So the Indigo flights right now,
[20:31] the white bodies still fly with O&D traffic rather than transfer
[20:37] traffic. They're code.
[20:39] Sharing on domestic routes. Yeah, but which is which is one
[20:44] side of the story. But the whole basis also was
[20:48] that you would transfer traffic to Virgin Atlantic or to Delta
[20:52] at let's say at London or KLM at Amsterdam and and bring all
[20:59] these people on to the to the US or other North American markets
[21:04] there. So that hasn't happened at this
[21:07] point of time. And the other part about, you
[21:14] know what I've we gained out of this, I don't think, yeah,
[21:21] bilaterals are a bilaterals are a different story, right.
[21:23] I mean, there are Mocha and the Ministry of foreign, like our
[21:29] international ministry and so on.
[21:32] Those are the people who who who control that.
[21:35] So I don't think there was any stress or stray that was put on
[21:41] that to kind of giving their preference in some shape or
[21:45] form. And with the OEMs, again it's a,
[21:49] you know, it's not a issue that is I think it's a issue that is
[21:54] between 2:00 private companies, right.
[21:56] I mean with between Boeing and Air India for one or a Casa and
[22:02] between Indigo and Airbus. So it's nothing.
[22:07] I think I never expected anything there because these are
[22:14] all people who are doing businesses globally and the
[22:16] OEMs. And yeah, I'm sure they have certain amount of the way
[22:21] to do certain things, but we'll never hear of that because all
[22:26] of this happens behind closed doors.
[22:29] It has been couple of days since the first commercial flight
[22:32] landed at Navi Mumbai on Christmas Day, Indigo shifting
[22:37] significant capacity there. Other airlines have also
[22:40] announced their plans. Do you see NMIA becoming the
[22:44] Stansted of Mumbai, which is, you know, more LCC heavy?
[22:48] Or will it genuinely rival the main Mumbai airport for premium
[22:51] traffic in 2026? What's your What's your hunch?
[22:56] See, at this point of time, the cash meant of NMIA is more let's
[23:02] say the Navi Mumbai and Pune as I would put it.
[23:07] Of course there are the smaller territories in between, but
[23:12] clearly there is no preference from an Indian full service
[23:15] carrier to move there. So I think a lot of hints of
[23:21] what to expect come simply from how we things happen at Hinden,
[23:26] for example. Like, so there's a
[23:30] geographically nice airport, but the catchment area is Navi
[23:37] Mumbai on one end. And in my work, in my thought
[23:41] process, it's Navi Mumbai and on the other side, it's Pune.
[23:46] The cashmere area is not Sobo. The cashmere area is not the
[23:50] western suburbs or the central suburbs.
[23:53] So yeah. And I think everyone's
[23:55] allocating, you know, for the airport for that.
[24:00] I mean you're, you're getting Indigo, you're getting Air India
[24:03] Express and you're getting a Casa and lucky for Air India or
[24:09] you know they have the ability to tell Air India Express to go
[24:13] and open base there rather than coming in themselves.
[24:18] So yeah, I think, I don't think they will full service capacity
[24:25] will move there I guess for maybe another year, year and a
[24:29] half, because first you want to explain with the low cost model
[24:33] and see what is the take and then maybe the full service guy
[24:38] will also come in. It will come in.
[24:40] I can tell you what point of time I can't say because right
[24:47] now it's a limited run for the airport, Stan said.
[24:50] Or is it going to turn out into Gatwick?
[24:54] We'll see. It's definitely not becoming
[24:55] Heathrow for now. And on the international
[25:00] carriers, you know again we need to see what their negotiations
[25:05] in battering have been because nobody wants to lose prime
[25:10] Mumbai airport slots. So and if you know where, where
[25:16] we still running a point of call scheme where people are already
[25:21] allocated to Mumbai. Is this becoming like a part of
[25:25] Mumbai or is it a separate port of call We we need to see for
[25:30] instance, so between Bombay and Delhi, the bilateral with the,
[25:38] the UK is for Bombay slash Delhi.
[25:43] You know, there's certain limitation on the number of
[25:45] flights you can operate to Heathrow.
[25:48] Now, can British Airways come and operate more flights out of
[25:52] Navi Mumbai, which is an expansionist mindset that we
[26:00] still need to kind of see, you know, I mean, they don't need to
[26:03] think so much about, let's say, launching flights from Chennai
[26:06] or, or Bangalore or. Yeah, But to come out of Navi
[26:12] Mumbai is the first time we'll have that question answered.
[26:16] So keen to see what what turns out there.
[26:19] Yeah. And.
[26:20] And also there, there will be some slots opening up I'm
[26:23] guessing at CSMIA because they're shifting all the cargo
[26:27] traffic to NMIA, right? So you will have those landing
[26:32] slots and take off slots which will certainly become available
[26:35] in August. So.
[26:37] Yeah. Yeah, that's there.
[26:38] But you know, again, the, the, The thing is, I think by August,
[26:45] we'll, I guess, you know, we need to do maybe a mid of the
[26:48] year recap sometime where we will see actually what came out
[26:52] of these airports. Because by then NMIA would have
[26:56] like done like a full schedule, six months or five months,
[27:00] whatever. And we'll get a pretty good idea
[27:03] of what's the take rate. See, the good thing is it's both
[27:08] the Adani. So basically Adani airports is
[27:11] operating both the places. But what we've seen also
[27:17] happening is that airlines don't take kindly to the fact that
[27:21] when they were asked to just shift.
[27:26] So whether there will be concessions made or what, I
[27:31] think the game the the whole chess board is still open there.
[27:35] Well, no airline will be asked to shift out of Delhi.
[27:38] I can assure you that we will have different airport
[27:43] operators. For the uninitiated, of course,
[27:46] Delhi, the main airport is managed by GMR and the Noida
[27:51] airport will be managed by Zurich airport.
[27:55] But Noida's airport seems to be stuck in a permanent, almost
[28:01] ready state. With the opening pushed again.
[28:03] Now there is a no time till February 2026.
[28:08] I think for a Delhi based flyer. Is 2026 finally the year the
[28:14] triple airport reality hits and. How will that?
[28:19] Change the domestic fare war, Ajay, how do you see the
[28:22] dynamics change for the passenger so.
[28:26] Again, you know, in my book, basically Delhi becomes a
[28:34] three-way thing. You know, Hindon's already
[28:37] operational. Hindon's apparently getting more
[28:40] land and resources to become a sort of a permanent conclave
[28:48] where and and when I talk to people from Ghaziabad, then
[28:51] those cashment areas, they're very much like that.
[28:56] They're OK to travel non full service as long as they don't
[29:00] have to spend 2-3 hours to. Yeah it's so.
[29:02] Convenient. Plus it's because it's a smaller
[29:04] airport. You don't have to spend so much
[29:06] time. Indeed.
[29:08] So that's what so you know, I think the the more conventional
[29:14] Delhi, let's say the West Delhi Central S, all of these people
[29:20] will still continue to prefer Delhi.
[29:24] The East Delhi and Ghaziabad crowd is now starting to take to
[29:31] Hindon. Let's also remember Hindon has
[29:33] much lesser charges than Delhi international at this point of
[29:38] time, OK. And this will become a three-way
[29:40] battle when Java opens. So Java, I think has not Delhi
[29:47] at the heart of it, but it's going to again have Noida on one
[29:51] end and on the other end maybe all the way to Matra or Agra.
[29:56] All these people obviously don't mind spending one hour, 1 1/2
[29:59] hours less and commuting to an airport which is brand new.
[30:03] So, so yeah, it's going to become a previous fight there
[30:08] that we will see how it really works out.
[30:13] So it's, it's an airport which has capacity.
[30:16] Airlines will come because the parking base, I don't think we
[30:22] have enough with with another 900 to 1000 aircraft expected.
[30:28] We, of course, need all the capacity we can to park these
[30:31] aircraft and obviously the the parking base will come only to
[30:37] people who will go and operate from there rather than just the
[30:39] ability to come in kind of, you know, come in the night and park
[30:42] my aircraft there. So yeah, I think unfortunate
[30:47] that they couldn't get their clearances before end of the
[30:53] year, but hopefully that gives them more time to be
[30:56] operationally ready because even if they were inaugurated now,
[31:00] they were still taken, you know, 6 to 8 weeks to kind of be
[31:05] operationally ready #1 and #2 it's the fog season here.
[31:08] So there's no point risking it now.
[31:11] Right, let's talk a bit about loyalty programs.
[31:14] We saw the birth of Maharaja Club and Indigo Blue Chip late
[31:18] in 2024. So this really was the year when
[31:22] both of them came into full bloom and actually competed in
[31:26] some manner their first full year for the average airline
[31:31] loyalty program user or credit card spender.
[31:34] Has the value proposition improved in 2025 and how would
[31:39] you look at the year ahead in terms of loyalty?
[31:42] Average user still kind of is getting the short end of the
[31:49] stick. I'll tell you from a credit card
[31:52] perspective, but before that, let's see the numbers.
[31:57] OK. So Air India now has 10 million
[32:02] plus users, 10 million was April of May.
[32:04] They haven't really come out after that with a statement.
[32:07] So I'm not sure what has been the kind of real number, but
[32:11] let's conservatively look at maybe 11 or 12 million by now.
[32:16] What's surprised me has been that Indigo's managed to scale
[32:20] to 7,000,000 by the end of last quarter, which was maybe by
[32:26] September end. So that's been a very quick
[32:30] scale up. How many of these people are
[32:32] active, we don't know. Million is a decent database to
[32:37] market to. So that's that part.
[32:41] And obviously how do you want to put it, Maharaja Club and Blue
[32:49] Chip are as different as chalk and cheese.
[32:52] Maharaja Club being the more conventional loyalty lounge and
[32:58] a reward the people kind of program, Blue Chip being the
[33:02] more new era kind of thing where you get certain limited
[33:06] benefits, but not like a surprise and delight kind of
[33:10] thing like our Air India offers. So that's one.
[33:15] And for the credit card spender, obviously disappointing because
[33:22] the Air India credit card, I think the efforts were slowed
[33:25] down after the 171 incident unfortunately and India has a
[33:32] lot of and is now working on a lot of things with in close
[33:37] coordination with the Tata Sense HQ.
[33:40] So I think I think I hope in 2026 we will see the new card
[33:46] eventually point ago. They respect fast on getting
[33:51] partners and launching credit cards.
[33:55] But yeah, I don't feel the love, you know, in the sense of I
[34:00] don't see myself personally collecting a ton of blue chip
[34:06] miles and actually going spending money on a blue chip
[34:11] credit card. Yeah, most.
[34:12] Of my blue chips come from Swiggy, so so that which which I
[34:19] thought by the way was an interesting partnership and now
[34:21] that I think forced Maharaja Club's hand also with Zomato.
[34:25] I mean, these partnerships are common across the globe, OK?
[34:27] I mean, if you go to the US and look at that market, Swiggy and
[34:31] Uber and everyone's partner with the one or two major airlines
[34:36] anyways. So it was a matter of time when
[34:38] it would have to come to India. And I think we'll see a lot more
[34:42] partnerships coming up in the in that space.
[34:47] But yeah, at the end of the day, you know, the key concern always
[34:51] remains which ones of these work and which ones don't.
[34:57] And I guess they keep trimming partners accordingly over a
[35:01] period of time because you don't want to hang around taking on
[35:05] your resources while not generating enough revenue for
[35:08] you as Air India or as Indigo booth.
[35:11] Across the world, FFPS are a great source of not just revenue
[35:15] but profitability also for airlines.
[35:19] With the Casa's plans to grow, do you see a third loyalty
[35:22] program forming in 2026, or is the market now firmly A duopoly?
[35:28] I'm asking that because as per the latest internal memo out of
[35:31] the airline, out of a Casa, they're expecting almost 20
[35:36] aircraft deliveries in the year. The good thing about a Casa is
[35:44] it has a lot of prudent people at the top.
[35:47] And the one thing I've always appreciated about Vinay has been
[35:52] the fact that I think he keeps the like the herd together so
[35:59] that they stay true to their mission, which is obviously
[36:04] running a profitable airline. So I don't think at this point
[36:12] of time in India, a loyalty program is the make or break
[36:17] thing when you're choosing an airline.
[36:19] I mean it is for people like you and me, but I think you know
[36:25] because we are in a metro and obviously we are being hardly
[36:27] contested for. But in many places in India, you
[36:33] might just have only Indigo or might just only have a Casa or
[36:36] so on. So I don't think in the second
[36:38] tier and 3rd tier markets loyalty program really is the
[36:41] place. So I would say they would first
[36:44] focus on their on the growth and it will come, will it come six
[36:56] months down the line or but I, I personally think it's another
[36:59] 2-3 years before they had the scale to kind of have the
[37:03] overheads for a loyalty program. Yeah, Indigo was at 350 odd
[37:07] aircraft when they launched blue chip.
[37:10] That does not mean every airline needs to wait that long, but I
[37:14] get what you're saying. Which new credit card airline
[37:17] partnerships do you expect to come to fruition in 2026?
[37:22] I guess we'll see. The Air India card, that's
[37:26] number one that most definitely should happen in 2026 because I
[37:32] don't know why it did not happen in 25, but that's that's not get
[37:36] too ahead of ourselves. Emirates might come out with a
[37:40] new Co brand partnership. I don't know if it'll be
[37:45] supplement the ICICI one or if it will be something that will
[37:50] add to the catalog just. Taken over the RBL bank.
[37:54] The Emirates Bank has taken over the RBL bank, so maybe there is.
[38:00] Could be, but I I don't look I I can't predict which bank, but I
[38:06] am. I'm sure you know they need a
[38:09] bigger bank than RBL to do this because I think they were
[38:14] looking at numbers when they launched the partnership with
[38:17] ICICI Bank. And as per my conversation with
[38:23] the head of Skywards, and they're not being happy with the
[38:27] output so far. Others don't strike.
[38:29] Well, yeah, at this one time. Indigo starts flying the A321
[38:34] XLR to Athens in January 2026 next month.
[38:40] Is this the route that finally proves the narrow body long haul
[38:44] concept for Indian travellers? AJ Or will passengers reject 8
[38:48] hours in a narrow body? I think you are uniquely
[38:51] qualified to answer this. You were on the inaugural XLR
[38:57] flight with Aer Lingus. I think I was.
[39:00] On the Iberia inaugural, not no, no worries.
[39:06] But look India is one of the most perfect markets I think to
[39:14] get the XLR on. That's because a lot of places
[39:18] where your 321 or 321 LRS could not go or are going with one
[39:24] stop can now finally get a product which you know, where
[39:29] people can fly non-stop like Delhi, Bali, which I think I
[39:35] don't remember if it's already being operated with a technical
[39:38] stop or if it's scheduled to start.
[39:40] But you know, those are the kind of places that can be done
[39:45] non-stop with this plane. The second part about, you know,
[39:50] will people choose it over something else or not?
[39:54] I think apart from trunk routes, you know the XLR will all the
[40:00] other variant like the LR will obviously.
[40:04] Become the aircraft of choice for a lot of airlines to operate
[40:07] routes where they expect maybe 150 ish, 160 ish, 170 ish kind
[40:13] of passengers to fly. So Indigo is obviously taking
[40:19] the right approach by a taking a far enough route to launch and
[40:26] 2nd it's virgin territory. There's no, there's no
[40:32] background data so far. And as we've seen with Indigo,
[40:37] what tends to happen a lot is that when you go to a market
[40:40] where Indigo opens and eventually people come around
[40:44] and people fly to that place, like the Central Asian market
[40:48] where there was no carriers from India for a while or for a long
[40:52] while. And when Indigo kind of took on
[40:56] all those routes and opened them, I think they've seen great
[40:59] success for that product preference.
[41:02] I don't think that's an Indian trade, you know, I think Indian
[41:04] stays fair, not the product really if.
[41:08] Athens works out and that will be quite a challenge considering
[41:12] the route will go from zero direct nonstop flights to having
[41:16] agent also on the route. According to you, where does the
[41:19] network planning logic point to next in 2026 for XLR?
[41:25] Does Indigo look east towards Seoul and Tokyo?
[41:29] You already have Air India on both routes along with the local
[41:33] and Korean airlines already competing hard where yields are
[41:37] higher. Or do they push deeper into
[41:41] central Europe? Maybe some place like Rome and
[41:45] Vienna to undercut the Middle East carriers?
[41:49] Just for some context, Air India has just announced the restart
[41:55] of its flights to Rome. Indigo has also announced Delhi,
[41:59] London Heathrow from 2nd February onwards.
[42:02] So far it was just Mumbai. Now Delhi gets a London Heathrow
[42:06] flight as well five times a week, Not Delhi.
[42:10] And probably those Heathrow slots are coming in from KLM.
[42:15] Look, some of the obvious picks for them are Nairobi, which they
[42:20] can operate from Mumbai with the whatever version they have right
[42:26] now. But Delhi, Nairobi can't happen
[42:29] obviously. So I think some African stations
[42:33] beyond Nairobi will also come together.
[42:37] Europe yes, I think places where they might I mean I can't say
[42:42] off exact towns and stations because obviously I'm not a part
[42:46] of that team and not looking at the same data, but maybe Milan,
[42:50] who knows or you know, obviously Athens, yes, certain other, you
[42:59] know, the smaller markets which don't deserve a full like a wide
[43:03] body flight, not like a hub operation like so maybe they
[43:08] will take them there. So I think you know, this is not
[43:11] going to be a One Direction spring.
[43:14] They will eventually I don't know how many of these they're
[43:17] getting next year, maybe not more than 6 to 8.
[43:21] They will use these two kind of, you know, test out various
[43:25] markets and I can definitely do stem in Africa, couple of them
[43:31] in Europe next year and I imagine they will also go E into
[43:38] Asia. And then from where this whole
[43:41] delivery scales up is when you can see them carpet bombing
[43:44] routes with, you know, the same thing.
[43:49] I can also one more angle of the Indigo strategy always has been
[43:53] to kind of, you know, have carpet bomber station with
[43:58] themselves, right? So I would imagine hopefully
[44:02] this Pakistan airspace closure will be gone by then.
[44:07] And every of these cities where the XLR will go, they might have
[44:14] two stations at the minimum operating rather than just one,
[44:18] because that's where they start to get scale and they can rotate
[44:22] an aircraft, let's say do a Mumbai, Athens then and then you
[44:33] know the other way around. So I don't really expect them to
[44:37] pick two stations or three stations in each market in each
[44:41] continent where the plane can fly initially.
[44:45] We know so far the A3 50s arrive in 2027, but 2026 could be the
[44:50] prep year, right? Do we expect Indigo to lease
[44:54] more white bodies like the 7-8 nines from Norse in 2026 to hold
[44:59] slots at key airports like Heathrow or Amsterdam?
[45:02] Or do you think they will pause wide body expansion until their
[45:06] own metal arrives? You know, it's a question of how
[45:10] where you land those white bodies from does not come up and
[45:13] say OK, I'll give you another 2 aircraft or not.
[45:18] Because to the best of what I see around, I think white bodies
[45:24] are not too many of them around which are spare for airlines.
[45:31] So now obviously was not being able to operate themselves
[45:34] profitably. Hence it's a like a place where
[45:40] they shut down their own routes, whether or not operating
[45:43] profitably and handed over to Indigo.
[45:46] But I also don't see the ability of an airline to offer
[45:51] consistent product with different kind of white bodies.
[45:55] You know, I mean, what if Stretch One International, which
[46:00] is a Nos product has a premium economy seat and on some of the
[46:05] carrier if they contract them, they they get a different kind
[46:09] of product. So it's something I don't think
[46:13] it's cool with passengers and it's not even cool with them.
[46:16] So I'd say if they end up getting more aircraft from Nos,
[46:27] great going, otherwise they might press pause.
[46:30] As Indigo reconfigures A320 ones for Indigo stretch, they are
[46:35] technically losing seat density in a capacity constrained 2026.
[46:40] Does this put pressure on their unit costs, forcing fares up for
[46:45] the average economy flyer? So remember, they're not
[46:49] reconfiguring existing aircraft. They're just taking new ones, up
[46:54] to 45 of them, which has the new product installed.
[46:58] At this point of time, there's no plan of adding more aircraft.
[47:02] I think the the strategy for Indigo kind of they'll have to
[47:08] put a pause on the domestic expansion of the product.
[47:11] If you remember. And what they're doing now is a
[47:14] lot of sending these, a lot of these aircraft internationally,
[47:18] which I think on day one or day zero itself was the known thing.
[47:21] I mean, they could, they don't have to say it, that some point
[47:24] of time you will perhaps get more money sending those seats
[47:28] to Singapore and Dubai rather than flying them on 21 times a
[47:34] day between bomber Delhi. Having said that, will they kind
[47:41] of get, you know, more success with this?
[47:47] Totally. I think over a period of time
[47:49] people will become more appreciative of premium cabin
[47:55] traffic #2 let's remember that at this point of time, that big
[48:00] alliance of theirs with KLM, Delta and everyone else has not
[48:05] picked in forever reasons It's not come live at this point of
[48:10] time. And when that transatlantic
[48:13] traffic finally starts to flow with them, all these people will
[48:17] have access to a business, a pseudo business inventory, which
[48:26] at this point of time does not exist on Indigo.
[48:29] So yeah, I think they will continue to investor resources,
[48:33] the people who will take it as Indians and a lot of them will
[48:39] be international customers as well.
[48:42] I've been seeing pictures and videos of Air India's A-350-1000
[48:46] on X Looks marvellous on all those trial flights, so one can
[48:50] guess that the delivery is imminent.
[48:53] The Dash 9 hundreds were deployed largely on trunk
[48:56] routes. You had London, Dubai, maybe JFK
[48:59] and Naywark as well to showcase the brand.
[49:04] With the larger Dash 1000 coming, do you see them finally
[49:08] launching the true ultra long haul flagship routes like LAX or
[49:14] Dallas directly to compete with Qatar or Emirates?
[49:19] Or do you think they will play it safe on high density North
[49:22] American routes? We all know they are one wide
[49:26] body shot due to 171, but will they make a punch on a new North
[49:32] American route? You know.
[49:34] The first aircraft I'm definitely sure are going to,
[49:41] you know, upgrade the product from one of the existing you're
[49:45] talking. About the dash thousands will
[49:48] be. Being will.
[49:49] Be operated on A-900 route right now.
[49:52] No upgrading in the. Sense on a the mission profile,
[49:56] I mean on a route that already operates but will now instead of
[50:01] have the 777 will have this dash 1000 and they're good reasons
[50:07] for that. You know, the you know, a, like
[50:10] you already said, the one white body shot at this point of time.
[50:14] B The other thing is they're shot of planes really right now.
[50:23] The Dallas and the LAX plan, to the best of my knowledge, has
[50:26] been put on hold for now because you know you don't have enough
[50:31] planes. And then we're also seeing some
[50:33] of the 777 LRS getting out of the fleet.
[50:38] The Delta ones are going back because there was certain time
[50:42] frame they were borrowed from. And I think the glitch in their
[50:45] matrix was that they hoped and prayed that their own aircraft
[50:49] would arrive, but that did not happen.
[50:53] So they're going to they'll first reinforce the existing
[50:57] routes and once they're done, only then will they go for new
[51:03] places. So I guess LAX and how do you
[51:07] want to put the Dallas can wait for now.
[51:09] And you know, people will first see these on existing crowds.
[51:15] Most probably common sense would say they would take these to
[51:18] SFO, but will they be able to do it with one aircraft or will
[51:24] they wait for the second one to arrive and you know be able to
[51:27] kind of actually do like an operation is something I can't
[51:34] speak of at this point. They they.
[51:36] Cancelled, by the way, Bangalore's SFO yesterday itself
[51:40] in favour of increasing frequency from Delhi.
[51:44] But yeah, but it's something to do with with lack of metal for
[51:48] sure. Yes, See.
[51:51] The the trouble for them is they don't have enough metal and
[51:56] while people will crib for the fact that Bombay or Bangalore
[52:00] don't get enough frequencies, the the true story is deadly can
[52:04] and will always remain the hub and and they have to 1st fix
[52:11] this hub before they will start giving things to Bangalore or to
[52:14] Bombay. So even the 350 whenever it
[52:17] arrives will we can hope for it to go to Bangalore.
[52:21] I know the Bangaloreans want it but most probably it's coming to
[52:25] Delhi and some flights from Delhi will take on the route,
[52:29] not the ones from Bangalore for now.
[52:32] Ajay, we've been promised the new Air India experience for
[52:35] years now. In 2026, the legacy 78 eights
[52:40] and triple sevens finally return from refits in large numbers.
[52:44] It's a big pivotal year is the bigger risk for 2026 Not the new
[52:50] planes but the inconsistency of having a mixed fleet where a
[52:55] passenger might pay the new Air India price but might still get
[53:01] the old Air India seats if a swap happens.
[53:06] I don't think so. You know, I would say the, the
[53:11] way Air India went about it was pretty.
[53:14] You know, even when you when you look at the three 5900
[53:19] deployment, they only kind of put those planes in motion when
[53:23] they actually had enough to sustain certain routes.
[53:27] So London now gets it from Delhi twice a day.
[53:31] New York gets it once a day, New York and Nibak gets it once a
[53:36] day at this point of time. And then there's some internal
[53:39] rotation around India. But I think they will at least
[53:44] you know, whatever aircraft, the old ones or new ones, they will
[53:50] mostly either operate them twice a week to a certain place or
[53:55] operate it in a when they have two of these, then they will
[53:58] operate like a long haul pair. But I I don't expect that when
[54:02] you're going to earmark for the new product around you will have
[54:08] too many swaps with the old product.
[54:12] This is also coming from the place that obviously the life of
[54:17] the aircraft would have been extended.
[54:19] And then, you know, you, you can't be setting premium economy
[54:23] on a, on a route with the new 788.
[54:27] I mean the Retrofit 788 and then telling people that the old 788
[54:33] is going to fly on that. Air India Express is adding 20
[54:38] to 24 aircraft in 2026. In the coming year and
[54:43] retrofitting the white tails, they are aggressively targeting
[54:47] Tier 2 cities in 2026. Do we see them becoming the
[54:52] Indigo alternative for non metro India or do you think they will
[54:57] pivot to feed the Air India long haul hub in Delhi or in some
[55:02] instances even Mumbai? What do you think of their
[55:05] strategy? Their strategy has been pretty
[55:08] simple all along. OK.
[55:10] And this is driven by the way as an extension of the Air India
[55:13] strategy, they will continues of the regional network which is
[55:21] Middle East and you know Southeast Asia and so on.
[55:25] On one side. On the other part of them, doing
[55:30] domestic operations clearly is where Air India can't or does
[55:35] not go because they don't have the revenue, you know, premium
[55:40] that they think they want or they justify they want.
[55:45] That's where Air India Express is sent.
[55:47] So Air India Express will continue to take over many
[55:51] stations from Air India and feed to the network into Delhi or
[55:56] Bombay or whatever else. You know, Bangalore also is the
[56:00] third hub. So I think a lot of people
[56:04] should be able to buy unified tickets on Air India and
[56:08] Express. Out of these three hubs, will
[56:12] they become an Indigo alternative?
[56:14] I think that is really a game of scale.
[56:17] So obviously they're far behind Indigo in terms of fleet
[56:20] numbers. But yeah, it could happen at
[56:23] some point of time. They, they could become, you
[56:26] know, the contention that keeps happening is they actually claim
[56:31] to be the number three, you know, operator in India at this
[56:36] point of time as an LCC. But because the numbers are
[56:41] masked into the Air India Group numbers, that truth never comes
[56:45] out. And on the other hand, obviously
[56:47] there is a Casa, you know, also claiming to be the number three.
[56:52] I think. So they're big enough, except
[56:57] they're an extension of Air India.
[56:59] They're not a stand alone network really, so to speak in
[57:05] 20. 26 Air India's new maintenance base goes live and
[57:09] they want to make Delhi a true global hub.
[57:12] Can Delhi actually compete with the Dubai or a Doha?
[57:17] Is the transit product still lacking?
[57:20] I don't. Think we have a transit product,
[57:21] you know, so lacking is when you have something and you're not
[57:25] don't have it complete, you know, I think there's no
[57:31] competition at this point of time.
[57:32] So what's? Happening is the airline and the
[57:34] airport operator not talking to each other?
[57:36] They are not able to work with each other.
[57:39] Where is the where is the gap? I mean, if the ambition is there
[57:44] and if the government keeps saying the same thing again,
[57:46] again the airline says it, the airport says it, but I mean,
[57:49] clearly it's not there on the ground.
[57:52] What's going wrong? See, I think some intervention
[57:58] still needed, perhaps on the policy level, you know, to kind
[58:04] of perhaps remove certain unnecessary transit
[58:10] requirements, like so that your MCT, which is the minimum
[58:16] actually, you know, reduce to the levels where people will
[58:21] really take it #1 But #2 And the major one there really is the
[58:28] fact that I think we're waiting for the Air India and the Indigo
[58:33] product to kind of, you know, get better.
[58:37] So the whole thing about coming off a plane and then finding a
[58:44] way to the next gate at best at other airports there is like, I
[58:50] just came off Boston, Dubai, Delhi like 2 days back.
[58:55] It just works. Dubai just works.
[58:57] You know, they don't make you jump hoops.
[59:00] They don't make you kind of, you know, do a lot of things in
[59:04] India. Does somebody want to
[59:07] voluntarily go? Perhaps they want to, but it's
[59:11] just because of the fares. I think why Dubai and Doha and
[59:16] Abu Dhabi kind of also work is because the governments are
[59:20] really invested in these places to make these not just transit
[59:28] hubs. They want these people to also
[59:29] come and see their country a bit.
[59:34] So that's where you have those places where in Doha or in Abu
[59:39] Dhabi you can book a stopover. Can you do that in India?
[59:43] Not really. So all those things need to be
[59:45] perhaps driven by the Ministry of Tourism because Air India or
[59:49] Indigo, you can't really be promising you a 48 hour transit
[59:54] visa if you decide to step out. So those kind of things.
[59:57] That's why I think we we're not fully baked as a airport slash
[1:00:03] policy slash airline ecosystem. Some people do transit, but to
[1:00:10] have them in proofs you really need to have a a better airline
[1:00:14] product and BA better transit. Experience slash product for
[1:00:20] them, which is not just limited to the airport, but also the
[1:00:24] ability to get a visa, the ability to hopefully not get
[1:00:28] scammed in India while you're here, which unfortunately is
[1:00:32] still the truth. A lot of foreigners get taken
[1:00:35] for a ride and you know all those things, those are all
[1:00:39] hygiene factors which other airports just offer and we
[1:00:43] don't. Staying on that, there is talk
[1:00:46] about the eventual demolition or major repurposing of Terminal 2
[1:00:51] in Delhi once Terminal 1's expansion is fully stabilized in
[1:00:56] the 2026 road map, do you see the airline distribution
[1:00:59] changing? Ajay, will we see a super
[1:01:02] terminal of sorts dedicated let's say entirely to the Air
[1:01:05] India Lufthansa United star Alliance ecosystem to create a
[1:01:10] really a seamless hub while everyone else is pushed to other
[1:01:15] terminals? I don't think that is on the
[1:01:18] road map, you know, I think you know it as well as me that
[1:01:23] Indigo always wanted, for example, T1 to be handed over to
[1:01:29] them so that they can move the entire operation there.
[1:01:32] The same group did not hand it over to them at that point of
[1:01:35] time. So I don't see that they will
[1:01:40] hand over T3 entirely to Air India Group.
[1:01:44] But for for that matter, I think T3 will see a major remodeling
[1:01:49] is already happening at this point of time internally.
[1:01:53] So and then they also talk of building a new peer.
[1:01:58] So I think that terminal is going through a lot of changes
[1:02:01] of itself at this point and we just got to see what they come
[1:02:05] up with eventually. But GMR did not hand over Indigo
[1:02:11] the whole terminal. I don't think that's happening
[1:02:16] at this point of time as well coming to terminal two major
[1:02:19] remodeling. I think that's something we can
[1:02:23] safely park for another five years because it just came out
[1:02:26] of, you know, like putting the a lack of a better term lipstick
[1:02:32] on a pig and it's still no, not really a very effective
[1:02:38] terminal. So T1, they did a great job.
[1:02:42] T3 they did a great job. I don't think they're willing to
[1:02:44] put money on T2 turning into T4 at this point of time.
[1:02:49] That's the same expression I used when I used that terminal a
[1:02:52] couple of weeks back. Let's talk about a Casa to end
[1:02:55] the show. They've been quietly expanding
[1:02:57] internationally, with the Big 2, Indigo and Air India distracted
[1:03:03] by their own transformations. Do you think 2026 is a Casa's
[1:03:09] year to disrupt the Middle East routes?
[1:03:12] Will they look to fly beyond? Look, there's a lot more demand
[1:03:16] from India for the Middle East than we at any point of time are
[1:03:19] able to service. So it's I think easy pickings.
[1:03:25] And also I think the team has connections there.
[1:03:29] So it's easier for them to kind of get their way around it,
[1:03:34] around getting slots and so on. I mean, but I think after
[1:03:39] they're done there with the current battle, they will
[1:03:43] explore more into Southeast Asia.
[1:03:45] They need the more more of their dash tents, which are by the way
[1:03:48] not even certified at this point in time, let's say to go into
[1:03:51] some territories deeper, which let's hope it's get certified
[1:03:55] next year and then they'll hopefully one of the earlier
[1:03:59] customers. I've read reports suggest a Casa
[1:04:03] is targeting Singapore, Vietnam and Uzbekistan from Delhi in
[1:04:07] 2026. Is this a strategic shift away
[1:04:11] from their Mumbai slash Bangalore stronghold?
[1:04:15] Can they crack the Delhi market where Indigo and Air India are
[1:04:18] already very well entrenched? Coming from the fact that it's
[1:04:23] not that they can't get more slots in, I mean, they are of
[1:04:26] course one of the reasons they're not here is because they
[1:04:28] can't get more slots in Delhi at this point of time.
[1:04:32] But I also think I'm hoping personally, that given that
[1:04:39] Indigo will be now not given this free pass for the time
[1:04:43] being that they used to have for a very long time, I would
[1:04:47] imagine that other players will get some room to grow out of
[1:04:51] Delhi. And a Casa could really make
[1:04:54] good use of that if they got their equipment in time.
[1:04:57] So I know the equipments there just needs to be delivered,
[1:05:00] which will be a few months. Yeah, I think it's a it's a good
[1:05:06] idea for them to start making their way into Delhi, which they
[1:05:08] haven't been able to do meaningfully so far, and
[1:05:12] hopefully without Indigo knowing on the back, trying to kind of,
[1:05:17] you know, beat them out of it. Thank you as always Ajay for
[1:05:21] being so insightful with your thoughts.
[1:05:24] Best wishes to you and your loved ones for a brilliant 2026.
[1:05:29] Right. Thank you, Vishal.
[1:05:30] Same to you and same for the hopefully for the Indian
[1:05:34] aviation world where hopefully we get a lot more new aircraft
[1:05:37] and routes thanks to you. And that's a wrap on episode 57
[1:05:42] and on 2025. If you aren't already, make sure
[1:05:47] you're following Ajay's daily dispatches@livefromalounge.com.
[1:05:53] Next Sunday, The Indian Ad Geeks Episode 16, the first amongst
[1:05:58] the geeky podcasts to hit 2026, will feature a living legend of
[1:06:04] the Indian advertising, Tarun Rai.
[1:06:06] As for The Indian App Geek, we will return in a fortnight with
[1:06:10] a global takeoff for 2026. For now, don't forget to
[1:06:15] subscribe and share this episode of The Indian App Geek with your
[1:06:19] fellow app geeks. Ajay is of course at Live from a
[1:06:22] Lounge on X and you will find me everywhere as at Vishal 1 Mehra.
[1:06:28] Happy to have your feedback. Wishing all of you many more
[1:06:31] miles fewer, no Tams and a brilliant 2026 ahead.
[1:06:36] With that, keep your tray tables up, your seatbelts fastened.
[1:06:41] I wish you well and happy flying my friends.

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