Although Air India is spreading its wings again, IndiGo continues to dominate Indian skies with a 56 per cent market share. It also reported a 1000 per cent jump in profits for the October-December quarter, and has 500 Airbus aircraft on order to compete with Air India which looks to buy 840. But for now its operations may be bogged down since 25 of IndiGo's airplanes have been grounded over supply chain issues with Pratt & Whitney engines.
Along with IndiGo, low-cost airline Go First faces the same issue, which has grounded 25 aircraft from its fleet as well. Together the two carriers are down by 50 airplanes, and are considering alternatives such as wet leasing to make sure flyers don't suffer. Wet leasing refers to renting an aircraft along with the cabin crew, pilot and engineers to boost overall service.
Pratt & Whitney have been struggling to supply engines due to global headwinds caused by the Russia-Ukraine war. It hasn't been able to address these despite India's civil aviation officials discussing ways to unclog the supply chain. The firm has even opened a $36 million engineering centre in Bengaluru to ensure that its global supply chain is up and running.
Although P&W didn't comment on the number of carriers affected in India, it has mentioned that pressure will start reducing later this year. At the same time a flight tracking site has reportedly found that IndiGo is down by 39 aircraft.
P&W and CFM are two engine suppliers powering IndiGo's 300 strong fleet together, but Go First entirely depends on P&W for 61 airplanes. IndiGo has been clocking higher demand in the post-pandemic era, and operates 1,800 flights a day.
