The year 2023 was the best ever for Indian aviation, when it clocked the highest ever domestic traffic in history. However, this has come against all odds – literally. Data released by the Government of India in Rajya Sabha – the upper house of Indian parliament shows that 157 aircraft are currently grounded due to engine or other issues. A significant number of these, i.e. 101 are grounded because of issues with Pratt & Whitney engines. IndiGo has 74 of these while Go FIRST – which suspended operations in May last year has 27. Air India, Vistara and AIX Connect also operate the A320neo but have opted for CFM Leap engines. This data is as of January 28, 2024.
IndiGo leading the groundings
IndiGo has 74 aircraft grounded. The airline had between 40 to 50 aircraft grounded as of last year. The additional groundings which began mid January are due to the powder metal issue which was discovered recently. The supply chain issues, which began during the pandemic and continue till date, means that the engines to power these planes may not be available for a few quarters from now.
Go FIRST – which suspended operations has all its fleet of 54 planes on ground, however 27 of those are because of engine issues. Since the airline is grounded, it is unclear if the powder metal issue affects any of the other planes of the grounded airline.
Groundings due to other issues
Engines are not the only reasons why aircraft are grounded in India. 56 aircraft are grounded for various other reasons. The highest is from SpiceJet which has 21 Q400 aircraft on ground, most likely due to weak finances. Bombardier – the manufacturer of the aircraft sold the company to De Havilland Canada (DHC) and the Q400 is not under active manufacturing right now.
Go Air has its 54 aircraft grounded at various airports in the country. Star Air, IndiaOne, Pawan Hans have one aircraft each on ground while Zooom Air has two aircraft on ground. Air India has one each of B777 and B787 on ground while Vistara has one A320neo grounded.
Total fleet in the country
IndiGo has 346 aircraft in its fleet, two of which are owned while 344 are leased (or sale and lease back) , shows the data released by the government. Air India has 129 aircraft, 67 of which are owned while 62 are leased. Air India Express has 39 aircraft, Vistara has 67 while Akasa Air has 22. Data for other airlines was not shared as part of the reply.
However, data for the fleet until December 31, 2023 on the Directorate General of Civil Aviation’s website shows that India has a fleet of 755 civil passenger aircraft (and helicopter in case of Pawan Hans). At 157, the grounded fleet stands at 20.8%, or one in five planes being grounded.
Tail Note
IndiGo has been trying just about everything to tide over the crisis due to the groundings. This includes wet lease of A320ceo aircraft, adding more A320ceo on dry lease and as news reports indicate – even wet leasing the MAX 8 in near future. What remains unclear is the timelines for getting the planes back in the air. Neither the airline nor Pratt & Whitney have been able to commit on timelines.
Go FIRST has not been able to attract suitors in true sense. All indicators currently are towards the airline not taking back to the air. SpiceJet on the other hand could see a handful of their grounded planes being back in the air.
The traffic has remained strong in Indian skies, with healthy load factors due to lower capacity and the fares holding up – again due to lower capacity. This would ease towards the end of 2024 as more inductions are done across airlines. How it will impact the yield and load factors is anybody’s guess. The whole thing could change if there are more groundings with either Airbus or Boeing. Until then, we are chasing another high in 2024!
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