IndiGo Will Stick to Low-Cost DNA Even as Willie Walsh Takes Over

IndiGo isn’t abandoning the low-cost playbook that made it India’s biggest airline.

IndiGo’s founder and promoter Rahul Bhatia, who is the airline’s interim CEO after Pieter Elbers’ exit, said the carrier’s low-cost, single-aisle core will remain untouched even as it brings in one of global aviation’s most prominent full-service airline architects to run the business.

“Our single-aisle program with the 320s and the 321s is going to be always central to the future of this company. That’s the very heart of this business,” Bhatia said during an earnings call Friday.

Willie Walsh, who built IAG from British Airways and Iberia and previously turned around Aer Lingus, will be joining as CEO in early August. Walsh has spent decades running full-service airlines, helping build International Airlines Group (IAG) around British Airways and Iberia, and earlier steering Aer Li