India's largest carrier by passenger volumes -- IndiGo -- has decided to operate wide-body aircraft in the next few months to meet the demand of international operations in the aviation business, an IndiGo statement confirmed.
"As an interim measure, we have decided to take on wet/damp lease certain aircraft to cover the shortfall for our scheduled international operations," the budget carrier said.
"International air travel is going through a strong period of recovery, and demand continues to rise in the upcoming festive and winter season. This is a positive sign for the industry and IndiGo remains very bullish on strong growth for international travel to and from India in the future," IndiGo added.
This induction of the low-budget carrier into the wide-body aircraft league will give a tough competition to other airlines such as Vistara and Air India.
The government had recently discussed with Indian airlines to operate wide-body aircraft to make India a global aviation hub. The civil aviation ministry had asked low-fare airlines like IndiGo and SpiceJet to explore the possibility of inducting wide-body aircraft in their fleet and also explore strengthening as full-service airlines such as Vistara and Air India.
"IndiGo currently has over 275 narrow-body Airbus aircraft in its fleet and 26 international routes including 74 domestic routes," a company official said.
IndiGo has received approval from aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for the induction of wide-body aircraft under wet lease.
"We have received an in-principle approval from the regulators for the same and the induction of these aircraft remains subject to further requisite regulatory approvals. We are committed to exploring every opportunity possible to overcome these capacity challenges and provide our customers with efficient and affordable air travel," an IndiGo statement read.
According to aviation sources, the budget airline will finalise a deal to wet lease with Boeing 777 aircraft to increase international routes for western countries.
In an earlier statement by the outgoing CEO of Interglobe Aviation, Ronojoy "Rono" Dutta, expressed his confidence multiple times that IndiGo would operate direct flight to London in the coming days and also mentioned that, "buying wide-body aircraft is just a matter of time." He added that the time has come for India's low-cost airline IndiGo to get into the wide-body aircraft business. Interglobe Aviation operates the carrier IndiGo.
"However, as the aviation industry globally continues to face significant supply chain disruptions, we have been exploring a multitude of solutions to enable us to continue our operations smoothly and to provide our customers with efficient and affordable travel," an IndiGo statement said.
( With inputs from ANI )
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