IndiGo to Fly the Boeing 777

DALLAS - India’s largest carrier, IndiGo (6E), is going big and wet-leasing wide-body Boeing 777 aircraft for the coming winter season given the demand for overseas flights.

As stated on mint, the airline's winter schedule will include Boeing 777-200 LR and Boeing 777-300 ER operations. Airline officials also confirmed on October 12 that the aircraft would be deployed on international flights.

Airways has contacted the 6E to see if its standing partner, Turkish Airlines (TK), would be providing the triple sevens on a sort of damp lease with a mixed cabin crew from both airlines.

Comments from IndiGo

"As an interim measure, we have decided to take on wet/damp lease certain aircraft to cover the shortfall for our scheduled international operations. We have received in-principle approval from the regulators for the same and the induction of these aircraft remains subject to further requisite regulatory approval. We are committed to exploring every opportunity possible to overcome these capacity challenges and provide our customers with efficient and affordable air travel. "

"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."

Doing It Different

At this point, you may have noticed that it’s quite an unusual move for a low-cost carrier to make such a decision on leasing such large jets that it’s never operated before, but given 6E's track record, one could arguably say there is solid backing for this choice, and it also goes to prove that there is such a void in international travel. And let's not forget the dire shortage of widebody aircraft on Indian carriers.

The incoming Boeing 777s would initially fly out of Delhi (DEL) and later from Mumbai (BOM). Since its inception in 2006, 6E has stayed with one of the key low-cost principles of a single-aircraft fleet although it ventured into the turboprop regime with the ATR.

IndiGo has over 269 aircraft - 232 belonging to the Airbus A320 family and 35 ATR 72-600 flying over 1600 daily departures.

Featured image: Alberto Cucini/Airways