New Delhi

Indian low-cost carrier, IndiGo received the nod from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Wednesday to wet lease (lease with operational crew) 11 Airbus A320 family narrow-body aircraft for three months, according to a report by the Times of India.

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As Pratt & Whitney (PW) has warned that up to 700 of its engines for the A320neo aircraft may need to be evaluated in the next three years internationally, forcing some planes to be grounded, the low-cost carrier is seeking to lease more than 20 aircraft.

IndiGo, the largest A320 operator in the world, is attempting to lease as many older generation A320ceo aircraft as possible in order to avoid being affected by the newest round of PW’s never-ending problems with its geared turbofan (GTF) A320neo engines.

“We have given the approval for wet leasing of 11 aircraft to IndiGo for three months. These are all A320 family aircraft,” Times of India quoted a senior DGCA official as saying.

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The regulator has not yet received IndiGo’s request to lease additional aircraft. The following batch will only include aircraft that are leased with the low-cost carrier’s own crew operating them.

As a “stopgap” measure in response to supply chain challenges the aviation industry was experiencing, the government raised the length of time Indian airlines may wet lease wide body aircraft from six months to a year in November of last year.

Indian airlines with massive growth ambitions were unable to meet the growing demand for travel due to the large number of planes that were grounded, waiting for engines and components, and the supply of requested new aircraft from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) being impacted.

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Two wide-body aircraft from Turkish Airlines have already been wet leased by IndiGo. They are utilised to fly daily between Istanbul and Delhi and Mumbai. Due to problems with PW engines, IndiGo is now looking for single aisle A320ceos instead of the single aisle A320neos, which were meant to be more fuel efficient. Approximately 50 of IndiGo’s 170 A320neo aircraft are now grounded.

PW has since issued a cautionary statement saying that “600 to 700 engines will be removed for shop visits between 2023 and 2026 (and) the accelerated removals and incremental shop visits will result in higher aircraft on ground.” The new PW warning may have a negative impact on IndiGo’s operations.

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