Indigo, the country’s biggest domestic airline, is reported to have placed an order of 20 wide-body aircraft for international operations. People close to the development confirmed with The Mint that the airline is planning to expand its global ops. It is the first time that Indigo has ordered wide-body aircraft.
“IndiGo will be inducting around 15-20 wide-body aircraft. The airline has been in discussions with aircraft manufacturers Airbus and Boeing for at least one year. It is expected to place an order this year itself,” said a source privy to the recent development.
Another source stated that Indigo has ordered Airbus 321 XLRs for flying from India to Amsterdam but it will only be able to join the fleet in 2025, which is nearly two years away. “If IndiGo was to place a wide-body aircraft order now, it may get it in even six months. The delivery timeline of the longer-range A321XLR of IndiGo is delayed to 2025,” said the person.
“As a policy, we do not comment on any speculation. As shared previously, we have a strong pipeline with close to 500 planes already on order to be delivered before the end of the decade,” the airline said in an email response to a query.
Recently, Air India had placed a historic order of 470 aircraft in order to bolster its operations which included 70 wide-body aircraft.
Indigo presently has multiple Airbus 320 family aircraft alongside the smaller ATR aircraft. Furthermore, it also operates Boeing 777 aircraft on the New Delhi to Istanbul route which was been wet leased from the Turkish. For the unversed, wet lease refers to leasing an aircraft along with the entire cabin crew.
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