IndiGo to lease more planes in move to take on new entrants
IndiGo is in talks with aircraft lessors to lease anywhere between four to eight planes to take its fleet size above 100
New Delhi: India’s biggest airline by market share is leasing more planes as it prepares to become bigger and combat competition from new entrants.
IndiGo, with a fleet of 88 Airbus A320 aircraft, ended 2014 with a 36.1% share of the domestic passenger market in December. Jet Airways (India) Ltd, once a market leader, was a distant second with 23.3% .
In 2015, IndiGo faces competition from Vistara and budget airline AirAsia India. The airline exhausted its first order of 100 aircraft made in 2005 late last year and decided to lease 12 aircraft from Tiger Airways; of these five have been delivered and seven more are expected soon.
Now, IndiGo is in talks with aircraft lessors to lease anywhere between four to eight planes to take its fleet size above 100. “There may be 100 planes in IndiGo fleet this summer," said a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified.
The summer schedule of flights cleared by regulator DGCA runs from March to October.
IndiGo did not respond to an email seeking comments on the subject.
Consulting firm CAPA confirmed that it “estimates and expects additional 8 more leases (apart from recent 12 leases) in FY16" for IndiGo.
Only two other Indian airlines have a 100 plus aircraft fleet so far. Air India has 129 planes that include 17 Boeing 737s for Air India Express and nine for Air India regional. Jet has 104 planes. Spicejet has 34 planes, down from 57 early last year.
To be sure, IndiGo has hundreds of planes on order, with Airbus including the next generation of fuel-efficient Airbus aircraft, NEO.
IndiGo is yet to firm up 250 of its 430 aircraft orders announced last year, according to the Airbus website. “It’s normal for some time to pass between an MoU (memorandum of understanding) and the firming up of a contract," Airbus spokesperson Justin Dubon said in an email reply from Toulouse.
Dubon said the NEO, of which IndiGo was the first customer, is on track for an end-2015 launch.
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