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IndiGO to start using ATRs by year-end
IndiGo plans to start commercial operations with ATR 72-600 aircraft by the end of this calendar year, said the company’s President and Whole-time Director Aditya Ghosh at a conference call with financial analysts soon after the company declared its Q1 results here on Monday.
“Documentation work with the aircraft and engine manufacturers continues towards finalisation of the purchase agreement (for acquiring the ATR aircraft),” Ghosh said.
IndiGo had told the BSE in May that the airline had signed a term sheet with French-Italian aircraft maker ATR for purchase of 50 ATR 72-600s, with the flexibility of reducing the number of aircraft based on certain terms.
A term sheet means that the airline has now identified the aircraft that it plans to buy.
IndiGo currently only operates Airbus A-320 aircraft.
Meanwhile, the airline said it continues to have operational issues with the Airbus A-320 New Engine Option (NEO), more popularly called the 320 NEO, due to engine issues. Ghosh said there have been days when the airline has had to “ground as many as nine NEOs due to lack of spare engines.”
He added that the airline continues to have a high number of engine removals and sufficient spare engines are not available. “Based on what we know today, it may be another year or so before the design changes are implemented by Pratt and Whitney, which should allow these engines to have the on wing flight hours that we expect from them,” he said. Drew Kaser Womens Jersey
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