Sky High: The IndiGo Story

by Tarun Shukla

English 272 pages 2 editions

In 2006, IndiGo was one of the late entrants into the low-cost airline business in India. The market already had many strong players by then-several of them new-including Captain Gopinath’s Air Deccan, Ajay Singh’s SpiceJet, Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher Airlines and Wadia Group’s GoAir. In the next seventeen years, while some struggled and others were grounded, IndiGo became not only the largest airline in the country, but also the most valuable in the history of Indian aviation. No other Indian airline has come close to matching these numbers since Indian aviation took off in 1932 with J.R.D. Tata’s Air India. What does IndiGo do differently-and right? What makes it prosper in a troubled and often loss-riddled industry? Why has IndiGo continued to grow despite the rift in the nearly twenty- five-year-long friendship of its promoters Rahul Bhatia and Rakesh Gangwal? What is the road ahead for IndiGo as it defends its supremacy in Indian aviation from Tata and Singapore Airlines-backed Air India? In Sky High , award-winning journalist Tarun Shukla presents a detailed account of how one dream, two media-shy friends and some great execution created an aviation behemoth. Based on years of research, extensive interviews and authoritative data, this is a fascinating story of patience, planning and persistence.