Indigo Partners

This article is about the private equity firm. For the Indian low-cost carrier, see IndiGo.

Indigo Partners

Company type	Private equity firm
Founded	2002
Founder	Star Alliance
Headquarters	Phoenix, Arizona , United States
Subsidiaries	Frontier Airlines JetSmart
Website	www.indigohq.com

Indigo Partners, LLC^[1] is an American private equity firm which has a controlling interest in the American Frontier Airlines and Chilean low-cost JetSmart, as well as holding stakes in Mexican budget airline Volaris and European (Hungarian) low-cost carrier Wizz Air. The company had a partnership with Enerjet when it launched the now defunct Canadian ultra-low-cost carrier Lynx Air.^[2]

Indigo Partners was founded by Bill Franke and has set up a number of ultra-low-cost airlines around the world. It is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona.^[3]

History

At the November 2017 Dubai Air Show, Indigo Partners signed a memorandum of understanding for 430 Airbus Aircraft: 273 A320neos and 157 A321neos for $49.5 billion at list prices: 146 aircraft will go to Wizz Air, 134 to Frontier Airlines, 80 to Volaris and 70 to JetSmart.^[2] Wizz will get 72 A320neo and 74 A321neo, Frontier 100 A320neo and 34 A321neo, Volaris 46 A320neo and 34 A321neo and JetSmart 56 A320neo and 14 A321neo.^[4]

Deliveries will begin in 2021, mostly in 2025-26 from Toulouse, France and Mobile, Alabama, U.S. Wizz Air previously ordered 110 A321neos at the 2015 Paris Airshow and its fleet will grow to 300 aircraft by 2025. Frontier received its first Airbus from Mobile in 2018 and its fleet will triple to 200, flying 50 million passengers in 2026.^[5]

On November 29, 2018, Indigo Partners reached a preliminary agreement to buy Icelandic low-cost carrier WOW Air after Icelandair Group dropped its takeover.^[6] However, on March 22, 2019, it was announced that Indigo Partners withdrew its offer to buy Wow Air.^[7]

On November 14, 2021, Indigo Partners ordered 255 A321s.^[8]

In 2022, Indigo Partners attempted to merge its majority-owned Frontier subsidiary with fellow US-based low cost carrier Spirit Airlines.^[9][10] The planned merger with Spirit fell apart as JetBlue offered an all-cash offer of $3.7 billion which was higher than Frontier's offer of more than $2.6 billion in stock and cash.^[11]

Fleet

Airline	Airplane	In service	Orders	Country
Frontier Airlines	Airbus A320 Family	121	219	United States
JetSmart		19	92	Chile
Lynx Air	Boeing 737 MAX	—	29	Canada
Volaris	Airbus A320 Family	112	104	Mexico
Wizz Air		176	379	Hungary
	Airbus A330	1	—

Further reading

• Gross, Sven; Schröder, Alexander (2007). Handbook of Low Cost Airlines: Strategies, Business Processes and Market Environment. Erich Schmidt Verlag GmbH & Co KG. ISBN 9783503100811.

References

1. "Stocks". Bloomberg News. August 11, 2023.
2. Stephen Trimble (November 15, 2017). "Indigo Partners signs MoU for 430 A320neos". Flightglobal.
3. "William A. Franke Ph.D." Bloomberg. Retrieved April 4, 2017.
4. Julie Johnsson, Mary Schlangenstein, and Benjamin D Katz (November 15, 2017). "Airbus Seals $50 Billion Jet Deal to Outdo Boeing in Dubai". Bloomberg.
5. Tony Osborne (November 15, 2017). "Massive Narrowbody Aircraft Orders Rattle Dubai". Aviation Week Network.
6. Edward Russell (November 29, 2018). "Indigo reaches tentative agreement to buy Wow Air". Flightglobal.
7. Ballah, Brett (March 22, 2019). "WOW Air-Indigo talks collapse, urgent talks begin with Icelandair". Western Aviation News. Archived from the original on March 25, 2019. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
8. Hepher, Tim; Creidi, Imad (November 14, 2021). "Indigo Partners spearheads order for 255 Airbus jets". Reuters. Reuters.
9. LeBeau, Phil; Josephs, Leslie (February 7, 2022). "Frontier and Spirit to merge, creating fifth-largest airline in U.S. in $6.6 billion deal". CNBC. Retrieved April 19, 2022.
10. Spirit and Frontier Airlines modify their initial agreement and expect to close the transaction soonAviacionline
11. Koenig, David (July 27, 2022). "With Frontier deal dead, Spirit ponders sale to JetBlue". AP News. Associated Press.