IndiGo weighs charging fliers for checked bags as market heats up

IndiGo, one of Asia’s biggest budget carriers, is mulling charging passengers for checked-in luggage as the airline prepares for a potentially fierce price war in India’s cutthroat air travel market, which is showing signs of recovery following the worst of Covid.

IndiGo, operated by InterGlobe Aviation NSE -1.54 % Ltd., didn’t implement the so-called unbundling of fares in February — just before a deadly wave of the pandemic hit the South Asian nation — even as India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation ruled that carriers can start offering zero baggage and no check-in baggage fares. Regulatory caps on fares and capacity related to Covid prevented IndiGo from taking a decision at the time, Chief Executive Officer Ronojoy Dutta said in an interview on Tuesday.