Indigo returned two-thirds of the wet, leaking narrow bodies in the past quarter as the basis for the Pratt & Whitney PW1100G-Powed A320Neo-Family Jets fell significantly below the peak levels reached last year.
Summary of revenue for the first quarter of July 30th, India's low-cost carrier said that aircraft numbers for the 40s are currently based on P&W issues in line with guidance released earlier this year. This low sum allowed the airline to return 15 wet, narrow width aircraft. Here, cockpit crews are supplied by the renters, but the lessee will provide their own cabin crew during the quarter.
That is, Indigo ended in June with two wet leases A320 CEO jets (14 at the end of March) and six wet Boeing 737 Family Jets.
In addition to reflecting fewer indigos on the ground, the decline in wet leases is driven by receiving new airbus jets at around once a week, according to CEO Peter Elbers, who cites unit costs benefits that are less dependent on external capacity providers.
Nevertheless, as P&W grounding continues, the airline says it retains the option of adding a wet lease of narrower bodies if the coming peak third and fourth quarters guarantee additional capacity.
Many of the decisions regarding extra narrow capacity are informed by the airline's recovery in demand and yield from the difficult first quarter. This was a 13.5% passenger increase surpassing the 16.4% capacity growth rate amid the impact of geopolitical tensions and the Air India 787 crash in June.
Meanwhile, the airline's short-term leased widebody fleet will remain throughout the year as it will be added to a single example of today's roster, using four more Boeing 787-9s from North Atlantic Airways. There are also two high density Boeing 777s for leases from Turkish Airlines.
Indigo reported profits of 21.8 billion Rs ($249 million) over the April-June period. This increased revenues by 6.4% to Rs 215 billion from Rs 27.3 billion the previous year.
The first quarter ended with a fleet of 434 aircraft from 434 at the end of March, but still up from 382 the previous year.
