In the world of aviation, one should never say never. And what airline is the current poster boy of being flexible and doing whatever it takes to keep the network alive and growing? IndiGo. Fly a widebody? Naah. Have a loyalty programme? Naah. And fly only with the A320 family aircraft? Naah. And all of those, they made a change of heart later.

IndiGo (finally) might be ready to induct 737 MAX Aircraft from Qatar Airways.

IndiGo already had 40-45 aircraft on the ground and another 30 or so grounded because of the new issues that surfaced with their Pratt and Whitney GTF Engines, taking the number of grounded aircraft to over 70.

IndiGo has already been using the Turkish Airlines’ wet-leased 777 jets for flights between India and Istanbul. They’ve also wet-leased about a dozen A320 jets from a European carrier. While scouring for more A320 aircraft is ongoing, the airline had considered adding some Boeing 737 MAX aircraft to its fleet on a damp lease to ride through the shortage of aircraft. This first came to light in February 2024. IndiGo also had updated some flights with the MAX seat map earlier, but it went away quietly.

Now, some flight plans have again loaded with the new seat map. The plan is to induct the aircraft from Qatar Airways and take up to five of their 9 MAX aircraft. To ensure that the aircraft can be maintained, the airline will use these aircraft for flights to Qatar, just like it exclusively uses the Boeing 777 aircraft for flights to Istanbul. So, the aircraft will return to Qatar at the end of their rotation.

Here is the seat map on the IndiGo website for a Delhi to Doha flight to be operated on August 1, 2024. When one puts on the Details section for the flight, there is no equipment detail.

The IndiGo XL seats are in row 3 now, and Rows 1 and 2 are empty. And here is the seat map for Qatar Airways’ 737 MAX 8.

IndiGo also has seat selection charges on its website, including the 737 MAX 8.

Qatar Airways has only recently inducted the Boeing 737 MAX 8 into its fleet, with all nine aircraft coming into the fleet between April and June 2023. The airline currently uses these aircraft to fly short-haul within the Middle East itself. The furthest they take them to is Baku and Tlibisi in Central Asia. Each 737 8 aircraft has 168 Economy Class seats and 8 Business Class seats.

Here are the current planned operations of the 737 MAX taking over the IndiGo Doha routes at the moment:

• Doha – Mumbai and v.v. on August 1, 2024 (1x Daily, now, 3x Daily on August 22, onwards)
• Doha – Chennai and v.v. on August 7, 2024 (1x Daily)
• Doha – Kochi and v.v. on August 1, 2024 (6x Weekly)
• Doha – Kannur and v.v. on August 9, 2024 (1x Daily)
• Doha – Bengaluru and v.v. on August 10, 2024 (1x Daily)
• Doha – Hyderabad and v.v. on August 14, 2024 (13x Weekly)
• Doha – Delhi and v.v. on August 20, 2024 (2x Daily)

India and Qatar have a bilateral agreement for 25,000 seats flown per week for each side’s carriers. This agreement was last revised in 2009 and completely exhausted by the Qatari side. In this case, Qatar Airways gets to ply the passengers and generate revenue, while IndiGo issues the tickets and keeps a share of the revenue. The seat count used here will be from the Indian side of the bilateral quota.

To think of it, this seems like a great move for IndiGo. Every aircraft counts at the moment, and whatever support they can get, they’d love to take it. The festive season is coming up, and as many aircraft are up in the air, means many more people can fly, and the airline makes money.

Bottomline

While the exact timeline for this move is yet not confirmed, IndiGo seems closer to laying the groundwork to induct up to five Boeing 737 MAX 8 Aircraft from its codeshare partner airline, Qatar Airways. The airline will use these aircraft to operate at international capacity, freeing up its aircraft, which are available for other routes. The Qatar Airways 737 MAX 8s are equipped with 168 Economy and 8 Business Class seats.

What do you think of this new move by IndiGo to add capacity via a damp lease from Qatar Airways?

(H/T: Ameya Joshi on X)

---

Liked our articles and our efforts? Please pay an amount you are comfortable with; an amount you believe is the fair price for the content you have consumed. Please enter an amount in the box below and click on the button to pay; you can use Netbanking, Debit/Credit Cards, UPI, QR codes, or any Wallet to pay. Every contribution helps cover the cost of the content generated for your benefit.

(Important: to receive confirmation and details of your transaction, please enter a valid email address in the pop-up form that will appear after you click the ‘Pay Now’ button. For international transactions, use Paypal to process the transaction.)

We are not putting our articles behind any paywall where you are asked to pay before you read an article. We are asking you to pay after you have read the article if you are satisfied with the quality and our efforts.