Coming Soon: A 500+ seater Boeing 777 in IndiGo Blue

IndiGo, which recently ventured into wide-body operations by damp leasing one from Turkish Airlines to operate Delhi – Istanbul flights, is now getting ready for their second leased 777 aircraft, which is again due to arrive from Turkish Airlines.

IndiGo’s next 777 will arrive in full IndiGo livery

Turkish Technic, the MRO arm of Turkish Airlines, is clearly very excited about the new operations, and they have been putting out an update on the aircraft preparation on their own social media handles. The second aircraft, unlike the first one, will be operated in full IndiGo livery, and the aircraft has been painted in IndiGo colours already. One couldn’t think of IndiGo crossing over to Boeing, but here is the aircraft in IndiGo livery.

a large white and blue airplane parked in a building

This aircraft, to be registered TC-LKD, will be earmarked exclusively for IndiGo’s use, unlike the existing wet-leased aircraft, which is flying in Turkish Airline livery. The aircraft will have a higher density configuration, featuring seven business class seats and 524 in the economy cabin.

The 14-year-old aircraft had seen many operators before and largely served Air Austral before heading back to lessor AerCap, and then being used for cargo operations by Alitalia and being configured for Azur Air of Russia. The LOPA will not be reconfigured, and hence the seat map below is also going to be reflective of how it will be on IndiGo. The aircraft has 3-4-3 seating, with ten abreast configuration, which is going to be tight.

 

a diagram of a passenger seat

While IndiGo is operating DEL-IST-DEL with a 77W from Turkish with a 400-seat configuration for now, it is expected that this aircraft will go into service on the BOM-IST-BOM rotation which is due to get the 77W from May 1, 2023.

IndiGo, with this experiment, is clearly focusing on its core niche, which is economy class no-frills travel for its customers, and only upsizing the equipment to be able to carry more traffic on the route, which its current aircraft are unable to make it work successfully due to the long-distance involved.

As an aside, IndiGo is also now looking forward to operating more long-haul flights, including to the US but does not comment on where the widebody equipment for it will come from for now.

Bottomline

A Turkish Airlines high-density Boeing 777 has now been painted in IndiGo livery at Turkish Technic, and will be delivered to IndiGo soon. The 531-seater aircraft will operate flights between India and Istanbul in the coming weeks. The aircraft will have 7 Business Class seats, but it is not clear yet if these will be operationalised or not by either carrier.

What do you think of the IndiGo Boeing 777 and would you be excited to fly with 530 other passengers on board?


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About Ajay

Ajay Awtaney is the Founder and Editor of Live From A Lounge (LFAL), a pioneering digital platform renowned for publishing news and views about aviation, hotels, passenger experience, loyalty programs, travel trends and frequent travel tips for the Global Indian. He is considered the Indian authority on business travel, luxury travel, frequent flyer miles, loyalty credit cards and travel for Indians around the globe. Ajay is a frequent contributor and commentator on the media as well, including ET Now, BBC, CNBC TV18, NDTV, Conde Nast Traveller and many other outlets.

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Comments

  1. Feel sorry for the poor souls that have to endure travel on such a densely configured aircraft. Any reason why would pick this pack of sardine over the equivalent TK flight?

    • Yes! As cost sensitive Indian consumer, I will take this flight as it is nearly 50% compared to TK metal. For 6 odd hours of flight, I would save Rs.20,000 or more!!

  2. In economy, they have already opened the tickets for this aircraft, and from what it seems, it is definitely 25% cheaper at 60k per person for travel to Europe via Istanbul than most other options which range from 80-100k. so, lets see the execution but pricing seems to be LCC right

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