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A high fuel price environment and the cost of acquiring aircraft has delayed IndiGo's plans to enter into an agreement for widebody aircraft. The airline that is known to be a tough negotiator is reluctant to acquire the Airbus A330 Neo by which it originally planned to launch direct flights to the European cities of Paris and London from the time of day. Winter of this year. Instead, the airline is weighing options to acquire the A321 LR, whereby it can launch flights to European cities within nine hours.
Airbus announces the A321LR for the mid-segment with 16 business class (36-inch) pitch and 190 economy (30-inch pitch) for a total of 206 seats. The aircraft recently demonstrated a test flight flying continuously for 11 hours.
"No jumbo jets from now on.Flying long-haul routes with wide-body aircraft and filling planes is a different ball game.Not so soon.The A321 LR is definitely on the way" , said one person who knows the plan.
The person said the airline, on the contrary, will increase its international destinations in the Middle East, Southeast Asia and China.IndiGo will launch flights to Phuket , Istanbul, Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Maldives and Kuala Lumpur between the months of October and March.
The main concern of the airline to acquire widebody is that It is not convinced to have a large passenger traffic to make the operations profitable.With the price of kerosene and the currency fluctuations that make life more difficult for the airlines, the airline can not yet s & # 39; 39, venturing into a new ope
"Large aircraft have almost twice as much operating costs. This means that we need significant passenger traffic to cover the costs of the big-lift aircraft for each departure, "said a second person familiar with the plan.
ALSO READ: 1 , 2 million IndiGo seats on sale from Rs 1212; In response to questions from Business Standard about IndiGo's overall plans, a spokeswoman said that the IndiGo's focus remains on international short-haul routes. "We recently announced Dhaka as our ninth international destination. There will be the announcement of more destinations in due time as we have the right to fly to markets such as Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Male, Jeddah and Hong Kong. The goal of IndiGo remains to provide the lowest rates for the fast-growing Indian market and its close neighbors. The airline did not order any widebody aircraft at that time, "she said.
We learn that the airline has begun serious negotiations with Airbus for the A330-800 but that she was unable to reach an agreement.Airbus did not respond to the queries while a senior executive of Airbus rival, Boeing, confirmed that he was unable to reach an agreement. there had been no discussions with the airline regarding the wide-bodies.
SpiceJet, competitor of IndiGo, also suspended its plans for the acquisition of aircraft. Cost. "The question is the cost. The high cost of ownership for new generation heavy-lift aircraft is a major impediment to the development of long-haul and low-cost air transport, "said SpiceJet CMD Ajay Singh
or later the airline will order the wholesale and the only factor is the cost of acquisition. "There has been a change of direction at Airbus. The current management does not believe much in aggressive pricing and, since the A330 neo program has had a new lease on life with AirAsia, it will trade more. "AirAsia Group has recently extended an order for the A330 neo, adding 34 aircraft to an existing command to bring the total command to 100.
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