New Delhi, June 1, 2025 (ANI): IndiGo, Delta Air Lines, Air France-KLM and Virgin Atlantic announced plans to build an industry-leading partnership connecting India with Europe and North America.
00:00The U.S. will continue to grow and they are connecting to the super strong network of Air France, KLM, Virgin and Delta in Amsterdam and Manchester. It's just a great opportunity. And then whatever is next to Bruno, you will hear it at the next press conference, okay?
00:15I have two quick questions for the American guy there. First question, your approach is to take stakes in the other airlines. Are you planning to do that in a few years?
00:37And second question, United is coming back to JFK and what do you reply to that and what do you think about that commercial agreement with JetBlue? Thank you.
00:49Well, to the first, we have no plans relative to an equity investment in Indigo. They're doing very well, raising capital and we're very happy to be a strategic partner here.
01:03We have investments in many airlines around the world and you never say no, but right now that's not part of our plan.
01:13Back in the U.S., the United announcement coming back to JFK that's not going to be for another couple of years yet.
01:20We love competition in the U.S.
01:22So I look forward to competing with United anywhere in the globe and they run a good operation and we'll be very happy to compete against them.
01:34And as to their announcement with JetBlue, it was kind of interesting. It was more around loyalty.
01:39This is the real deal.
01:41This is a relationship with the fastest growing airline in the world in one of the biggest aviation markets and biggest countries in the world here in India.
01:49So I'm much more interested in this than a handful of slides with JFK.
01:56Sid Philip from Bloomberg News.
01:59Ed, how is this going to affect, given the fact that Indigo is going to launch long-haul flights from India to presumably your destinations in the U.S.?
02:07How will this sort of partnership transform over the years as Indigo as service?
02:12And Peter, in terms of your destinations and your partnerships for long-haul flights, do you plan to sort of work with more Sky Team Alliance members or would you be neutral to other airline partnerships as well?
02:26Well, on your first question, we look forward to welcoming Indigo when eventually they do fly directly to the U.S., which I know is in their plan.
02:36And no dates announced yet, but that's in the plan.
02:39And one of the things that we're great at providing is great distribution once any of our partners, including Air France, KLM and Virgin, get to the U.S.
02:49And likewise, we look forward to direct service in return back over to India over the next couple of years and working closely with Indigo.
