IndiGo, the largest airline in India, exceeded Southwest Airlines based in the US in terms of market capitalization on Wednesday, becoming the world’s third most valuable airline according to Bloomberg data.
IndiGo’s stock price surged by 4.73 percent to reach Rs 3,806 on Wednesday, raising its market capitalization to $17.605 billion, surpassing Southwest’s market capitalization of $17.333 billion.
According to Bloomberg data, Delta Airlines ($30.442 billion) and Ryanair ($26.941 billion) hold the top two spots in terms of market capitalization.
IndiGo is the sole Indian carrier among the world’s top 10 airlines. Currently, IndiGo operates 14,014 flights per week, marking an 11.2 percent increase compared to the previous week of April, based on Cirium’s data.
The world’s two largest aircraft orders in the past year were made by IndiGo and Air India. In June 2023, IndiGo placed an order for 500 A320neo family planes with Airbus. In February 2023, the Air India Group ordered 470 planes: 250 from Airbus and 220 from Boeing.
In February, Edward Delahaye, Head of Customer Accounts for India and South Asia at Airbus, projected that India is poised to emerge as the hub of global aviation within the next 15 years. He attributed this to the country’s robust demand, capacity, and the presence of professionally-managed airlines in its aviation market.
India currently has about 800 commercial aircraft operating in its skies, with the majority from European plane-maker Airbus. “If you add domestic traffic growth, the GDP growth in the country, recapturing a lot of international traffic from other international airports, and establishing India as a connecting place in the world, I think the prospects of Indian aviation are very bright, well beyond what we are seeing today,” he mentioned.