IndiGo Says Grounded Aircraft To Reduce To Mid-Forties By April

Gaurav Negi, CFO, IndiGo, on Friday said that as the airline starts operating its grounded fleet, it will return the damp leased aircraft and reduce its rising aircraft and engine rental costs

IndiGo on Friday said that its grounded aircraft will come down to mid-40 planes by April next year or the start of 2025-26. The carrier’s grounded aircraft stood at 60 as of September end this year.

The airline, which controls the largest share in the domestic market and has the largest fleet, informed in a post-earnings conference call that its grounded aircraft include the ones that are either waiting for parts owing to the supply-chain challenges or undergoing inspections after Pratt & Whitney (P&W) recalled hundreds of aircraft PW1100G engines, reported Moneycontrol.

Gaurav Negi, Chief Financial Officer (CFO), IndiGo, on Friday said that as the airline starts operating its grounded fleet, it will return the damp leased aircraft and reduce its increasing aircraft and engine rental costs.

The carrier has also received information from P&W that its fleet grounded due to issues with the powder metal used to make the P&W geared turbofan engines would be addressed, which would inturn help the airline to begin operating its 35 grounded aircraft by April 2025. This flaw causes cracks in the engines.

Negi further informed that the airline’s Aircrafts on Ground (AOGs) have been reducing and going ahead, the company’s spending on AOG mitigation measures will also come down. This should aid in its financial performance in the coming quarters.

IndiGo’s AOG hit a peak of mid-70 in the July-September quarter this year, CEO Pieter Elbers informed, however, there has been some improvement in the situation since then. The CEO also noted that the carrier clocked a loss of Rs 987 crore for the second quarter in the current fiscal year attributed to a jump in fuel costs. This was due to a few states increasing the value-added-tax on jet fuel and a hike in the cost to make up for the AOGs.

The aircraft and engine rental costs for the company also climbed nearly four times to touch Rs 763.6 crore in the quarter ended September 30, 2024, in comparison to Rs 195.6 crore logged in the corresponding period a year earlier.