IndiGo – India’s largest carrier is all set to induct a new type in its fleet, albeit as a wet lease. The airline, which has records for largest aircraft orders with Airbus, will induct a handful of MAX 8 aircraft from codeshare partner Qatar Airways, all of which will be deployed on flights to Doha from various points in India.
This announcement was made during the call with analysts post Q1-FY25 results. IndiGo reported a profit of INR 2278.8 crore in the quarter, making this the seventh consecutive quarter of profits. The airline announced that it would induct these aircraft on wet or damp lease during its analyst call post its results declaration today.
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Doha is the hub for Qatar Airways. The news has been making rounds since early this year and was widely speculated to cover the busy summer season.
However, it was delayed repeatedly until the first aircraft landed in India today. Progressively, the airline will deploy 75 out of its 82 frequencies to Doha on the MAX 8 aircraft being wet-leased from Qatar Airways.
This translates to 150 weekly flights, with all but seven flights to Doha by IndiGo being on the MAX 8. The airline had put up the seat map and seat selection prices on its website a few weeks ago.
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While Qatar Airways had called out these flights as codeshare flights operated by IndiGo with Boeing 737 family, IndiGo’s own website continued to call these “undefined”, possibly for regulatory reasons.
This arrangement is similar to what IndiGo has with Turkish Airlines but while IndiGo sells tickets beyond Istanbul, in the case of Qatar Airways, it does not. Like Turkish Airlines, which is bilaterally constrained on adding flights to India, Qatar Airways,too, has exhausted all rights to India.
Competing with Dubai and Abu Dhabi for traffic, Qatar Airways is at a disadvantage since its quota of seats is significantly lower than the two hubs in the UAE. Qatar Airways operates only a single flight to Mumbai and twice daily to Delhi from Doha. Rival Emirates has five daily flights to Mumbai and four daily to Delhi.
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Qatar Airways has nine MAX 8 in its fleet and it is an interesting story on how it got those, as its narrowbody fleet is otherwise the A320 family, with 50 A321neo on order. Initially, it was speculated that those were the Air Italy ones, a carrier bankrupt but had a 49% stake in Qatar Airways.
The airline started receiving the MAX in April 2023, and all nine are now in the fleet and operational. All of these were destined for S7 – Siberia Airlines, but then started the Russia – Ukraine war and the sanctions meant that the planes could not be delivered and were available quickly. The first aircraft arrived in Doha on April 15, 2023. The aircraft underwent IFE streaming installation at Doha and went into pilot training flights. The airline had already placed an order for 25 737 MAX10 at Farnborough Airshow in 2022.
These flights will offer a significantly better experience to passengers than IndiGo’s current product. These are configured in 176 seats, comprising eight Business class – which IndiGo is not selling and 168 economy class.There are power outlets at each seat, as well as personal device holders.
The Boeing MAX family has been in the news for all the wrong reasons since induction, which has involved two fatal crashes, global grounding and a recent incident of a door coming loose and flying out.
The aircraft, however, has been certified by global regulators to fly commercially. Boeing continues to struggle with maintaining timelines for deliveries of this aircraft, with one or the other problem cropping up at regular intervals.
Where are these planes going to fly?
Data shared by Cirium – an aviation analytics company, exclusively for this article shows the MAX 8 being deployed to Doha progressively from Delhi, Mumbai, Kochi, Chennai, Kannur, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. Towards the end of August, there is an increase in frequency from Mumbai to thrice a day service from the current double daily offering by IndiGo.
IndiGo seems to be perfecting the model which has worked well with Turkish Airways.
But why?
IndiGo ordered 500 planes last year, has nearly a thousand planes on order then why does it need these types? IndiGo is hit by the grounding of Pratt & Whitney powered A320neo family aircraft. Pratt & Whitney powered planes have had one or the other issue since induction, which involved false warnings leading to air turnbacks, in-flight engine shutdowns and the latest being contamination in powder metal leading to the grounding of around 80 airplanes from its fleet of over 360.
With Tata group airlines growing rapidly and demand still strong, these wet leases will help free up aircraft that IndiGo can then deploy on other routes. The upgrade of experience on routes to Doha also is a win-win for Qatar Airways whose codeshare passengers will have a better experience than flying IndiGo’s own aircraft.