India’s largest airline IndiGo expects aircraft groundings in the “mid-thirties” in the January-March quarter (Q4 FY24) due to engine inspections in view of the powder metal issue with Pratt & Whitney (P&W) engines. The groundings due to this issue will be in addition to the 40-odd IndiGo planes that are grounded due to earlier issues with P&W engines.
IndiGo, however, reiterated that despite the additional groundings, it is confident of meeting its capacity growth guidance of “north of mid-teens” for 2023-24 (FY24) due to the mitigation measures it is implementing. The airline is also confident of meeting its long-term capacity guidance of doubling its fleet by 2030.
“We have recently received additional information on the powder metal issue from Pratt & Whitney and based on our preliminary assessment of this, we anticipate Aircraft on Ground (AOG) in the range of mid- thirties in the fourth quarter (Jan-Mar2024) due to accelerated engine removals. These groundings will be incremental to the current AOGs,” the airline said in a statement on Tuesday.
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As of September 30, IndiGo’s total fleet size stood at 334 planes, including 176 A320neo jets.
In July, P&W said that a powder metal defect could lead to cracking of some engine components in its geared turbofan engines for the A320neo aircraft, and called for accelerated inspections of the engines and shop visits globally. These inspections and shop visits are expected to lead to the grounding of scores of aircraft all over the world.
“Globally, we understand that a large number of incremental engines ranging between 600-700 are being removed for accelerated inspections and shop visits between 2023 and 2026 and two thirds of these engine removals are planned for 2023 and early 2024,” IndiGo said.
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As part of the mitigation measures being put in place by IndiGo, the airline has retained 14 older Airbus A320ceo planes, extended leases on another 36 aircraft, and is in the process of taking 11 more planes on lease starting this month. It is also taking another 12 aircraft on lease from the secondary market, with deliveries expected from January. On Monday, IndiGo’s chief executive officer Pieter Elbers had told reporters that the airline is preparing more mitigation measures and will continue to explore opportunities to take more planes on lease.
In his interaction with reporters on Monday, Elbers had said that IndiGo was awaiting clarity from P&W on the “precise” timing, duration, and impact of the engine inspection exercise on the airline.
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“Going forward, we continue to work with Pratt & Whitney on more information and addressing the situation and implementing mitigation measures to minimize the impact of these AOGs on our capacity in Q4 FY23-24 and beyond,” IndiGo said in its statement on Tuesday.
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