India’s largest airline IndiGo is planning to induct six Boeing 737 Max aircraft on short term damp lease from Qatar Airways to mitigate shortfall caused by the grounding of aircraft by Pratt & Whitney (P&W) due to engine problems, the company's management said on July 26.
"The new Boeing 737 Max are going to be operated the same way we are operating the wide body Boeing aircraft 777 with Turkish Airways," said Gaurav Negi, the airline's chief financial officer, while addressing a post-earnings conference call on July 26.
He added that IndiGo will train its cabin crew to operate these aircraft but the pilots will be from Qatar Airways.
As part of the agreement, Qatar Airways will be responsible for the maintenance of the aircraft, while the cabin crew will be from IndiGo. The aircraft will be operated between India and Qatar, the airline's management added.
Damp lease, an arrangement under which the lessor provides an aircraft along with cockpit crew and maintenance to the airline, is costlier than a normal lease.
In February, Moneycontrol had reported that IndiGo plans to lease as many as 20 aircraft from April to partly make up for capacity lost due to the grounding of over 70 planes in its fleet.
IndiGo is expected to onboard six Boeing 737 Max aircraft from Qatar Airways and three Boeing 737 Max planes from Ryanair.
IndiGo has already operated Boeing 777 planes wet-leased by Turkish Airlines for flights between India and Istanbul. They’ve also wet-leased about a dozen Airbus A320 planes from a European carrier.
IndiGo, India’s biggest carrier in terms of domestic market share and fleet, has said that its grounded fleet will start returning to the air soon.
The grounded aircraft include planes either waiting for parts due to supply-chain challenges or undergoing inspections after Pratt & Whitney recalled hundreds of PW1100G engines.
In July of last year, Pratt & Whitney announced that expedited inspections were necessary due to a rare powder metal issue that might cause some engine components in the twin-engine Airbus A320neo to break. It is anticipated that between 2023 and 2026, 600–700 Airbus aircraft will be grounded as a result of the examinations.
IndiGo has also leased some older Airbus A320ceo planes on medium term basis or for around two-three years to help combat the issue of grounded planes, the company's management said.
In Q1FY25 IndiGo inducted two additional Airbus A320ceo planes, which are 15 percent less fuel efficient.
Despite the grounded aircraft, IndiGo is confident of meeting its capacity growth guidance, the airline's management stressed during the conference call. They expect IndiGo's fleet to grow 10-15 percent in FY25 as compared to FY24.
The airline had 382 aircraft in its fleet at the end of the quarter, up from 367 in the previous quarter. IndiGo operated at a peak of 2,029 daily flights during the quarter including non-scheduled flights.
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