The overall grounded aircraft, due to several issues, including supply-chain constraints, might reach the 200-mark by the end of 2023–24, said aviation consultancy CAPA India on Monday.
According to its mid-year guidance, the consultancy firm said that as of now, Indian carriers have over 150 aircraft on the ground, largely due to supply chain and other issues.
“This could cross 200 aircraft by the end of Mar-2024. This is also creating a shortage of parking bays, with aircraft having to be parked at hangars and MROs across the country. If the number of groundings increase, the parking challenges will become more acute,” CAPA India said in its executive summary of the mid-year guidance outlook.
“Supply chain issues are now a critical risk, and could have a deeper and more strategic impact than anticipated. This could for example impact the ability of mainline scheduled airlines to operate their UDAN flights.”
The consultancy firm projected that IndiGo will have over 90 grounded aircraft by the end of FY24, followed by Air India between 25 and 30, Go First at 54, and SpiceJet at 27.
“India’s operational fleet continues to be severely constrained. By the end of this year, out of a projected 789 aircraft on the register, only 588 are expected to be operational,” the summary read.
“Airlines such as IndiGo and SpiceJet have resorted to inducting aircraft on wet lease to bridge the shortfall in capacity. Upto 30 wet-leased aircraft are expected to be operating in India by Mar-2024.”
Besides, Capa India said that despite challenges, domestic traffic has shown resilience.
“Despite the sudden exit of Go First in May-2023, the fact that there are 150+ aircraft still on the ground, and the worsening supply chain issues (in contrast to the improvement that was expected), domestic traffic has shown resilience. CAPA Advisory expects traffic to reach around 155 million passengers in FY2024, or 15% higher than last year.”
“International traffic has also maintained growth in line with our annual guidance, and is expected to end the year at around 70 million passengers, despite the large number of aircraft on the ground.”