Indigo joins crowded Indian skies

India's latest budget airline is taking to the skies

Indigo, India's latest low-cost airline, will fly its first fare-paying passengers this week.

The airline says it expects to carry 6.7 million passengers a year on routes between cities such as Delhi, Calcutta and Bangalore by the end of 2008.

The Delhi-based carrier announced orders for 100 Airbus jets worth $6bn last year.

Domestic air travel within India is expected to grow at more than 20% a year up to 2010.

Ground concerns

India's economic boom has been accompanied by a huge rise in demand for flights.

A number of other carriers have already entered the market to take advantage of the demand, including Kingfisher Airlines, Jet Airways and Spicejet.

Indian airports handled 73 million passengers in 2005-06, of whom 51 million were domestic fliers.

But terminal facilities have failed to keep pace with the surging passenger volumes.