DELHI- India’s largest Low-Cost Carrier (LCC), IndiGo Airlines (6E) wet leases four Airbus A320s from Turkish carrier Freebird Airlines (FH).
The details about this development are flagged by Tanka Rohidas and shared by Indian Aviation Guy on X (formerly known as Twitter).
Photo: Siddh Dhuri | MumbaiPlanesIndiGo Wet Leases A320
Gurugram-based carrier is facing multiple issues with its fleet amid Airbus planes grounding due to engine issues, maintenance, and supply chain constraints.
Following this, IndiGo is wet-leasing more and more aircraft whether it is Airbus A320s, Boeing 737 MAXs, or 777s. The airline is now leasing four Airbus A320s from Freebird Airlines.
Freebird Airlines is an international airline based in Turkey and Malta. A subsidiary of Gözen Holding, it specializes in scheduled and charter flights to European holiday destinations, with Antalya Airport serving as its main hub.
Freebird Airlines has a fleet of 14 aircraft and serves over 100 destinations. Further, it has a European subsidiary and it has dedicated three aircraft.
Photo: By Anna Zvereva from Tallinn, Estonia – Freebird Airlines, TC-FBR, Airbus A320-232, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=50303390IndiGo will wet lease the four aircraft and they all have operated the following flight from Antalya (AYT):
- FH901 operated by 13.8-year old TC-FBV
- FH903 operated by 16.8-year-old TC-FHF
- FH915 operated by 15.8-year-old TC-FHC
- FH917 operated by 11.1-year-old TC-FHP
All these planes are taken on lease by Freebird and are powered by CFM 56-5A engines. These are reliable and maintenance-friendly engines. Further almost 60% of Airbus A318/A319/A320/A321 aircraft in the world use these engine variants.
Further, some of these planes have already landed or will land safely at Delhi International Airport (DEL) and they will be inspected by the 6E Maintenance department. After all checks are done, they will be deployed in their designated sectors.
The exact details of the route operated by these planes are yet to be revealed and we will update this post once we have solid updates.
Photo: EurospotWet-Leasing is the New Norm for 6E
Apart from these IndiGo has wet-leased planes from SmartLynx Airlines (6Y), Qatar Airways (QR), Cordendon Airlines (XC), Turkish Airlines (TK), and others.
In total, there are over 20 A320ceo aircraft, 10 737 MAX 8, two 737-800 and two 777s.
Indian LCC deploys A320ceo mainly on domestic routes while it operates 6 737 MAX on Doha-India flights, while the remaining 737s are deployed on busy domestic routes. IndiGo operates 777 exclusively on the Delhi-Istanbul and Mumbai-Istanbul routes.
IndiGo has 434 aircraft in its fleet and out of these 87 are inactive amid multiple reasons such as maintenance, grounding, unavailability of parts, etc.
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The post IndiGo Airlines Wet Leases Four Airbus A320 from Freebird appeared first on Aviation A2Z.
