IndiGo eyes more international flights, planning to operate wide-body aircrafts

In order to address the need for international operations in the aviation industry, IndiGo, the country's largest airline by passenger volume, has decided to operate wide-body aircraft in the coming months. This was verified in a statement from IndiGo. As a result of this, Vistara and Air India would face stiff competition with the low-cost carrier's entry into the league of wide-body aircraft. Moreover, to make India a hub for international aviation, the government recently considered operating wide-body aircraft with Indian carriers. Additionally, the civil aviation ministry had encouraged low-cost carriers like IndiGo and SpiceJet to consider adding wide-body aircraft to their fleets as well as consider growing into full-service carriers like Vistara and Air India. 

"As an interim measure, we have decided to take on wet/damp lease certain aircraft to cover the shortfall for our scheduled international operations," the budget carrier said. "International air travel is going through a strong period of recovery, and demand continues to rise in the upcoming festive and winter season.  This is a positive sign for the industry, and IndiGo remains very bullish on strong growth for international travel to and from India in the future," IndiGo added.

"IndiGo currently has over 275 narrow-body Airbus aircraft in its fleet and 26 international routes, including 74 domestic routes," a company official said.IndiGo has received approval from the aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for the induction of wide-body aircraft under the wet lease.

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"We have received an in-principle approval from the regulators for the same, and the induction of these aircraft remains subject to further requisite regulatory approvals. We are committed to exploring every opportunity possible to overcome these capacity challenges and provide our customers with efficient and affordable air travel," an IndiGo statement read.

According to aviation sources, the budget airline will finalise a deal to wet lease with Boeing 777 aircraft to increase international routes for western countries. In an earlier statement by the outgoing CEO of Interglobe Aviation, Ronojoy "Rono" Dutta, expressed his confidence multiple times that IndiGo would operate a direct flight to London in the coming days and also mentioned that, "buying wide-body aircraft is just a matter of time."

He added that the time has come for India`s low-cost airline, IndiGo, to get into the wide-body aircraft business. Interglobe Aviation operates the carrier IndiGo. "However, as the aviation industry globally continues to face significant supply chain disruptions, we have been exploring a multitude of solutions to enable us to continue our operations smoothly and to provide our customers with efficient and affordable travel," an IndiGo statement said. 

(With inputs from ANI)