There was much buzz created by IndiGo and Turkish Airlines when they unveiled a Boeing 777 aircraft, which is owned by Turkish Airlines but is damp-leased to IndiGo and painted in their colours.
IndiGo’s 777 operations
IndiGo agreed to wet-lease up to three aircraft for deployment on international routes. A wet lease means that the airline supplying the aircraft, in this case, Turkish Airlines, would also operate the plane with its crew and be responsible for its maintenance. IndiGo managed ground operations in India, sold tickets, and marked flights with its code.
IndiGo introduced Boeing 777 planes on the Delhi—Istanbul and Mumbai—Istanbul routes in February and May 2023, respectively. This came after an extensive codeshare partnership between IndiGo and Turkish Airlines, allowing IndiGo to offer seats beyond Istanbul, including into Europe and the US (to be flown by Turkish Airlines).
While a wet lease was previously allowed under Indian rules for six months, IndiGo became the first beneficiary of an update to the rule and will now be able to have this damp lease for a year.
The aircraft inducted by IndiGo was configured with seven business class seats and 531 economy class seats. IndiGo used these wet-leased aircraft from Turkish Airlines for its Delhi-Istanbul (6E11/12) and Mumbai-Istanbul (6E17/18) operations.
IndiGo used to operate Istanbul flights with the 777s from Delhi and Mumbai until November 14, 2024, when they returned to Istanbul. This would have been understandable because perhaps the airline could not secure any extensions on the damp lease arrangement for these aircraft.
Subsequently, IndiGo switched to operating the flights with Airbus A320neo aircraft, which did not just cost them extra flying time. Still, they could only fly 186 passengers, just one-third of the passenger capacity they could fly on a 777.
IndiGo to reintroduce wet-leased Boeing 777s on its fleet from December 1, 2024
IndiGo will again introduce wet-leased Boeing 777 aircraft on Istanbul routes from December 1. The Civil Aviation Ministry of the Government of India has yet another six-month extension for the wet lease of these aircraft from Turkish Airlines (which can be extended by another six months)
In the meantime, TC-LKD and TC-LKE (both Boeing 777s) arrived in Mumbai and Delhi, respectively, to take over their respective rotations on December 1, 2024.
IndiGo-branded Turkish Airlines’ Boeing 777 aircraft interiors
IndiGo-branded Turkish Airlines’ Boeing 777 aircraft interiors
IndiGo-branded Turkish Airlines’ Boeing 777 aircraft interiors
IndiGo seems to have received a good response for its 777 services from India to Turkey. This positive feedback has led the airline to secure another contract for the wet lease of these aircraft (I say new contract because they returned the planes to Turkey for a while).
Remember, IndiGo now has its own A321XLR aircraft (A321XLR experience) on order and has also ordered the Airbus A350 aircraft, which could be helpful on this route when they arrive.
Bottomline
IndiGo has secured another contract to bring the Boeing 777 wet-leased from Turkish Airlines into its fleet. It will have two aircraft operating flights between Delhi – Istanbul and v.v. and Mumbai – Istanbul and v.v. effective December 1, 2024 onwards. The airline will have these aircraft for at least 12 months (on a 6-month + 6-month extension).
What do you think of IndiGo’s 777 operations?
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This flight is completely disastrous.
1. We queued for 45 mins for boarding just for boarding. Indigo manages it’s domestic flights much better.
2. Food was offered in Istanbul – Delhi leg but no such luck in Delhi – Istanbul even when we paid for F&B. When we highlighted it to the airhostess she mentioned that she will check but never reverted.
3. Web-check in was not allowed in code sharing flight of Turkish Airlines at Budapest.
4. Seats are very cramped worse than Indigo’s domestic flights. Please note that my height is 5 feet 10 inches. Good luck to taller people.
5. Airhostess blocked the alley with their food cart selling food which restricted movement to washroom.
6. Airhostess kept serving food throughout the night without dimming the light resulting in almost no sleep. You will clearly feel that there are very sales target on these airhostess.
what I don’t understand if the aircraft is doing his job it was bringing in profit why wouldn’t you just order the 777-9 for future operations. The aircraft is going to hold more passengers than a350 and burn less fuel. Yes the aircraft has been delayed for quite a few years but it doesn’t make sense you have Pilot that’s trained on the 777-3000 and is bringing them profit. But this right here shows you the strong hole that it was has on a lot of airlines and the great discounts that Boeing can’t even touch when it comes to selling aircraft because Airbus is owned by several different governments so technically they can almost get these planes away.
@Damien, I think you don’t understand how a wet lease works. Turkish Airlines pilots operate the flights, IndiGo does not have 777-“3000” trained pilots.
Social media, specially the Indian expats ‘ groups are filled with horror stories of indigo flight stories. Step child treatment at Istanbul, horrendous delays of connecting flights, inability to do basic stuff like seat reservation and bad crew attitude are routinely cited.
Indigo never had a reputation since it is low cost and new on europe – India sector but these shenanigans have costed Turkish airlines dearly. Many people booking throught 3 party websites or search engines land up unexpected in this combo and have had bad taste at end of journey.
I am amazed Turkish has not pulled plug on this
I was always satisfied with Indigo domestic flights.
But my experience of my Indigo flight from India to Istanbul was exactly as I wrote : a catastrophy. I did not invent anything. The other passengers who complained were Indians and not “expats” or “antinationals” (!).
I always book my tickets on the airline’s website and I never use social media.
But if the social media are full with “horror stories of Indigo flights”, it means that there is a problem.
The last time I started from Delhi with Turkish, I could see the Indigo 777 still at the gate with a big delay again.
I hope they will improve their service (if it is not already done)
I like to fly from Switzerland to India via Istanbul. With Turkish Airlines everything goes perfectly (web check-in and seat selection two days before, good food). In june of this year I tried Indigo (which is very good for Indian domestic flights), because I was attracted by the lower price. Result : Never again!!! Everything was catastrophic because the codeshare do not work properly : impossible to do the web check-in (check-in at the departure airport only), they can choose a seat at the Swiss airport on the Turkish flight only (GVA-IST) but not on Indigo (!). If I want to change the seat choosed by Indigo for the flight IST-India, I must do it at the boarding gate (!) in Istanbul. The food on Indigo was miserable (only one minuscule dish). Something incredible, there was no flight entertainment (the cabin screens remained off all the time). Last but not least, they seem to start frequently very late from India (later than the following Turkish flight from India to Istanbul), and the captain was completely mute (absolutely no explanation abouth this delay). When some passengers complained about this, the Indigo “girl power” (!) flight attendant answered arrogantly and impolitely, saying that the capitain had other things to do than to make announcements.
I hope they improved this mess since june!