An airplane of Turkish Airlines. | Photo Credit: AFP
What does the newest DGCA order say?
The DGCA has given IndiGo a 3rd extension to lease plane and crew (also called damp leasing) from Turkish Airlines, reversing its earlier ultimatum to finish the partnership. The authentic request was for a interval of three months from December 1, 2024 to February 28, 2025. In May, the DGCA mentioned it was granting a “one-time, ultimate extension” for 3 months upto August 31, 2025 to keep away from passenger inconvenience as a consequence of flight disruptions when IndiGo’s damp lease permission was due for a overview. The DGCA’s guidelines permit airways to moist or damp lease international registered plane for a interval of 12 months that’s extendable as soon as by additional six months.
IndiGo began utilizing the B777 plane to supply connectivity from Delhi and Mumbai to Istanbul in February and May of 2023. “This extension comes at a vital time and can assist mitigate losses to Indian aviation as a consequence of geopolitical restrictions, and drastically profit Indian travellers through the peak journey season by guaranteeing a seamless, direct connection to Istanbul and factors past,” IndiGo mentioned in a press release.
Why are such leases essential for IndiGo?
The damp leasing of B777 from Turkish Airlines will not be the one tie up the place IndiGo has loaned plane together with its crew from international entities. As on June 30, 2025, of the entire 416 plane in its fleet, IndiGo has six Boeing 737s from Qatar Airways, two A320ceos from Latvian entity Smartlynx and one B787 from Norwegian provider Norse Atlantic. The DGCA has additionally accepted SpiceJet’s plan to moist lease 5 Boeing 737 plane from Turkish provider, Corendon Airlines.
Wet and dry (plane sans crew) leases are more and more being adopted by airways so as to overcome the scarcity of recent plane globally that has grown acute for the reason that pandemic due to provide chain challenges. Airlines worldwide, together with IndiGo, are additionally being pressured to retain and generally revamp previous and fewer fuel-efficient plane to beat the scarcity. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), plane deliveries are at the moment working 30% under their earlier peak ranges, resulting in a record-high backlog of 17,000 plane. Based on IATA’s evaluation, if this backlog enhance is attributed solely to supply delays, airways are successfully brief by 5,400 plane, representing roughly 18% of the energetic world fleet. With annual manufacturing anticipated to stay round 2,000 plane per yr, IATA tasks that it may take between three and 5 years for the trade to resolve this shortfall.
In IndiGo’s case, which is the nation’s largest airline by fleet in addition to by market share of 65%, the scarcity is made extra extreme by the grounding of 60-70 plane as a consequence of Pratt and Whitney associated engine points.
How has the trade responded?
“From a enterprise standpoint, proscribing cooperation with Turkish Airlines can be counterproductive. Indian airways profit from code-shares and partnerships that develop their world attain, and passengers acquire from larger connectivity and aggressive fares. Aviation ought to stay a driver of progress and alternative, whereas political variations ought to be managed via diplomacy, not by limiting the industrial potential of our airways and travellers. If India needs its carriers to compete globally, it should allow entry, not limit it,” says Alok Anand, founding father of aviation belongings administration firm Acumen Aviation.
Published – September 03, 2025 08:30 am IST
