Comments
The Civil Aviation Ministry has allowed IndiGo to wet lease a Turkish Airlines Boeing 777 aircraft for an additional six months till June 2024. The nod for lease extension, which comes in the backdrop of supply chain challenges, is significant and will allow IndiGo to use the 531-seater aircraft to feed Turkish Airlines’ vast global network.
IndiGo has confirmed the development. It began operating the wet-leased Boeing 777 aircraft from Delhi and Mumbai from January and May, respectively. Under the lease arrangement, Turkish Airlines pilots operate the aircraft and its engineers maintain it. Cabin crew from both the airlines work on board. Before inducting the Boeing 777s, IndiGo flew its Airbus A321 aircraft to Istanbul. But the Airbus A321 aircraft carried fewer passengers and also required refuelling halt on outbound flight.
Previously, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation allowed damp/wet lease of planes for up to six months. Such leases were permitted in emergency situations that include grounding of planes, and unscheduled maintenance. Last year, the government relaxed the rule allowing damp/wet lease for up to 12 months. This has now been further extended by six months.
According to airline executives, the nod for lease extension has been granted for the aircraft that is flying with IndiGo since January-end. The government is expected to approve extension for the other aircraft, too. IndiGo’s partnership with Turkish Airlines is a part of its strategy to grow its international business. Turkish Airlines also operates two Boeing 777 planes daily to Delhi and Mumbai.
“Our partnership with Turkish Airlines has seen a strong surge in demand . Through this partnership, we are offering customers access to a total of 42 destinations beyond Istanbul. Of these destinations, we are seeing particularly strong demand for onward traffic to destinations such as London, Amsterdam, Chicago, New York, Dublin and Zurich,” said IndiGo
new flights
Apart from airline partnerships, it is also adding new flights, too. Recently it added six new international destinations in South East Asia, Africa and Central Asia. On Tuesday it announced extra flights from Mumbai and Bengaluru to Phuket that will result in 25 per cent increase in its weekly flights to Thailand.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.