IndiGo May Have To Ground At Least 35 Planes Due To P&W Engines Powder Metal Issue In Q4

IndiGo has already grounded 40 planes because of other issues with related to P&W engines

IndiGo will face capacity issues due to the significant number of grounded aircraft in the March quarter even as various steps are being taken to address the situation.

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India's largest airline IndiGo has said it aniticipates at least 35 planes to be grounded because of powder metal issue with the Pratt & Whitney (P&W) engines during the March quarter (Q4) next year, the PTI said. The airline has already grounded 40 planes because of other issues with related to P&W engines.

According to the PTI report, IndiGo, which had a fleet of 334 planes at the end of September, will face capacity issues due to the significant number of grounded aircraft in the March quarter even as various measures are being taken to address the situation.

In a statement, "We have recently received additional information on the powder metal issue from Pratt & Whitney and based on our preliminary assessment of this, we anticipate Aircraft on Ground (AOG) in the range of mid-thirties in the fourth quarter (Jan-Mar2024) due to accelerated engine removals. These groundings will be incremental to the current AOGs." Earlier this year, P&W pointed out the impact of the powder metal issue that has affected its new generation GTF aircraft engine.

"Globally, we understand that a large number of incremental engines ranging between 600-700 are being removed for accelerated inspections and shop visits between 2023 and 2026 and two-thirds of these engine removals are planned for 2023 and early 2024," IndiGo said.

IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers on November 3 said, "We have taken a whole range of measures... in living up to our capacity guidance of north of mid-teens (for this fiscal)." Among the mitigation measures are taking planes on wet lease, retaining ceo aircraft and also leasing additional ceo planes from the secondary market. 

However, IndiGo said it will continue to work with P&W on more information and addressing the situation and implementing mitigation measures to minimise the impact of these AOGs on its capacity in the fourth quarter of the current fiscal and beyond. "We also confirm our earlier capacity guidance for the entire FY23-24 'in the North of mid-teens' significantly aided by proactive mitigation measures taken earlier by IndiGo... IndiGo also remains confident in meeting its long-term capacity guidance," the statement added.