Rahul Bhatia: Aviation emerged as the most profitable sector after the covid among all the booming industries. Airlines business which fell completely during the pandemic saw a significant rise in their annual growth and revenue. Indigo, India’s largest airline in terms of market share and fleet size, recorded a huge revenue profit of Rs 129.8 crore on Rs 9,294.7 crore of revenue from operations in the third quarter of FY22.
Indigo gathered many headlines on its smart strategies and plan to work across the pandemic and stood firmly throughout the period, this persistent business also signifies powerful leadership.
The Leadership Behind Indigo
The dominance of Indigo in the aviation domestic market has been led by the prominent leadership of Rahul Bhatia who is the co-founder of Indigo. Indigo, also known as InterGlobe Limited, was founded in 2006 by Rahul Bhatia and Rakesh Gangwal.
Who Is Rahul Bhatia?
Born in December 1955, in Kolkata, Rahul Bhatia is a notable entrepreneur who holds an engineering degree in electrical engineering from the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. After coming from Canada, Bhatia established InterGlobe in 1989 with his thirty years of experience in the travel business. Before the aviation and travel business, Bhatia tried his hand in the telecom business which could not do well due to the regulatory norms.
InterGlobe To Indigo
Interglobe further expanded into sectors like logistics, travel commerce, hospitality, and airline management. In 2006, with aviation veteran Rakesh Gangwal, Indigo was co-founded by Rahul Bhatia under InterGlobe Enterprises. In July 2006, the company received its first aircraft in July 2006 and started operating as an airline.
Soon, Indigo became the largest Indian carrier by passengers in 2012. Also, in 2015, the company went public in 2015. The low-cost carrier model established by the co-founders worked really well.
Bhatia’s Strategy For Indigo
When Indigo was founded in the airline business, there were many big names already existing like Air India and Jet Airways, therefore for the co-founders challenges were tougher.
Affordability
The focus of Bhatia and his other company was to provide affordable air travel services so that the common man belonging to tier-3 and 4 cities could experience air travel which also helped the airline to escalate its passenger base.
Apart from affordability, the owners of Indigo also worked on the efficiency of the service, and today Indigo is the most punctual in the customer service and rapid in turnaround time.
Agile Financial Management
The way Indigo survived through the pandemic showed its financial agility. Leadership on its apex level has tremendously checked upon its financial management since its inception. The expansion of the network and fleet size are other features that symbolise the strong financial management of Indigo.
Modernisation
No company survive without innovation and branding, over the years, the airline company under its staunch leadership kept on believing the minimalistic branding and linked it with the country through its tag line ‘Go IndiGo’. In terms of modernisation part, they get their aircraft designed in a more comfortable and new way even for economy class along with the usage of technology within it.
Recently, In 2024, Rahul Bhatia collaborated with AlonOs which has promised to provide AI-driven service in the sectors of travel, logistics and hospitality.
Rahul Bhatia’s Net Worth
Along with leading India’s biggest airline with his abundant years of experience in travel and aviation, Rahul Bhatia is also the 22nd richest person in the country. Bhatia’s successful aviation venture gained Rs 8,583 crore in just sixty days last year in June. With this increase, his total net worth crossed by over 1 billion dollars up to USD 5.32 billion.
Bhatia About Steep Success Rate
The post-pandemic time turned magical for aviation and the overall hospitality sector. However, as per the media reports, Bhatia believed that the current infrastructural growth of India is of global standards which prepares the fertile base for the aviation, travel and hospitality industry to grow constantly. He also applauded the government’s policy of dealing with air traffic management, especially ‘One Nation, One Space’.
Future Endeavours
A good leader never stops, so is Rahul Bhatia . After leading the biggest airline in the country, Bhatia is still improvising its services and assembling modern technology. Bhatia-led airline company has ordered 30 Airbus A350-900 aircraft which will be India’s first narrow-body line aeroplane. With this, the founder is anticipating an expansion of the passenger base as the new aircraft will be efficient in terms of operations, will be more comfortable, and technologically advanced and as 70 % of its body is made up of strong metal, it will be safer. The aircraft can accommodate more passengers than usual, which will make the business more profitable. The capacity of A350-900 aircraft has a range of 15,0000 kilometres which can go through ultra long haul routes.
The scale of the venture, Rahul Bhatia created in the hospitality and travel sector is not exemplary but his strategic growth ideas made Indigo the biggest and most trustable airline in the country.
