Airlines in India have over 650 aircraft in scheduled commercial service. IndiGo is the market leader with around 213 aircraft in its fleet, followed by Air India, Jet Airways, SpiceJet, GoAir, Vistara and AirAsia India. Then there are airlines flying regional aircraft only like Alliance Air, TurboJet, Star Air and Zoom Air. There is also Air India Express, whose focus market is South India – Middle East, apart from a few other routes.

Airlines in India added 131 aircraft in 2018 and the same growth rate is expected this year also. But the Indian market is tough and many airlines are facing financial issue whereas some are facing a pilot crisis. Owing to this, IndiGo cancelled flights a few weeks ago, and Jet Airways cancelled flights, and are continuing to cancel flights at the moment as well. Are all airline utilising all aircraft in their fleet? I went about to find out. The first thing to report back, the aircraft currently on the ground is more than the size of SpiceJet which is the fourth largest carrier in India by fleet size.

GoAir

GoAir began its journey back in 2005 around the same time as IndiGo. GoAir, unlike IndiGo, lacked a strong management team, a consistent CEO (more than 6 CEOs changed flipped) and a proper strategy. They have since been doing just one job, existing, rather than growing. GoAir took the longest time to go international since it didn’t take any new aircraft deliveries, for a long time and was below the threshold of 20 aircraft for years.

Then, GoAir took rapid deliveries of many A320neo aircraft, and now has more A320neos (30) than A320ceos (17) in its fleet of 47 aircraft. It has a further 114 A320neo on order. But at least 3 new A320neo aircraft have been transferred to Toulouse Francazal airport for long-term storage: VT-WGU, VT-WJG and VT-WJH with no new deliveries since December 28, 2018. GoAir also has 8 aircraft on the ground with no scheduled flights to be operated by them.

Aircraft type	Aircraft Registration	Status	Airport Grounded At	Last Flight	Last Flight on	Notes
A320	VT-GOI	Grounded	Delhi	G8 148 IXR-DEL	April 6, 2019	Will be back on April 9, 2019 as G8 113 DEL-BLR
A320	VT-GOL	Grounded	Benguluru	DEL-BLR	January 3, 2019
A320	VT-GOM	Operational	Benguluru	G8-803 IXZ-BLR	February 24, 2019	Back on March 22, 2019 as G8 623 BLR-CNN
A320	VT-GOO	Grounded	Kannur	G8-622 BLR-CNN	April 5, 2019
A320	VT-GOS	Grounded	Delhi	G8-278 PNQ-DEL	February 22, 2019	Out from Feb 22-March 12, did 2 flights on March 12, then March 12 to March 20, did 3 flights from March 20 to 21, and then March 21 to April 5. Out since April 5, 2019.
A320	VT-GOT	Grounded	Kannur	G8-620 BOM-CCN	January 19, 2019
A320	VT-WAF	Grounded	Delhi	G8-329 BOM-DEL	February 22, 2019
A320	VT-WAG	Grounded	Kannur	G8-632 MAA-CNN	February 23, 2019	Out from February 23 to March 2, then March 26 to April 5, 2019 and now from April 5, 2019-
A320	VT-WAH	Operational	Delhi	G8-718 AMD-DEL	March 18, 2019	out from March 18 till March 25, did two flights March 25-26, out since March 26, back from April 5
A320	VT-WAK	Grounded	Delhi	G8-106 CCU-DEL	March 31, 2019
A320	VT-WAL	Grounded	Delhi	G8-116 BLR-DEL	February 13, 2019
A320neo	VT-WGC	Operational	Delhi	G8-285 GOI-DEL	January 25, 2019	Back on March 1, 2019 as G8 140 DEL-PAT
A320neo	VT-WGX	Grounded	Delhi	G8 148 IXR-DEL	January 29, 2019

I asked around, and while there were no firm answers forthcoming, it came down to a lack of strategy. To have 8 aircraft on ground and 3 in long term storage, it meant they did not have places to go. GoAir planned to add 10 cities to Phuket, but we have not seen any action after Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore. Clearly, GoAir has no pricing power on these flights, given they are in a fight with IndiGo. That is why people are rubbing their hands in glee with getting tickets Bangalore to Phuket for INR 10K for two people.

Jet Airways

Jet Airways is cancelling flights as aircraft are being grounded due to lack of parts and are being repossessed by lessors. Jet Airways also underwent a network realignment earlier this month which reduced aircraft requirement. So apart from scheduled redelivery, lessors are grounding aircraft as lease payments haven’t come through and no new Boeing 737 Max are being delivered currently which has led to aircraft shortage and cancellations.

We covered Jet Airways network changes in the following posts.

• Jet Airways massive International route consolidation coming December 2018
• Reading into Jet Airways Q3 Results 2018
• Jet Airways Middle-East Network changes
• Jet Airways Domestic Route network being cut back
• Jet Airways’ shutting down another 7 stations including 4 North-East stations

Apart from this, Jet Airways has shut down its ATR base at Bengaluru. Jet Airways used to operate ATR 72-500 on Bengaluru – Mangalore, Bengaluru – Chennai and Bengaluru – Hyderabad routes. While Jet Airways is now operating only 1 Boeing 737 daily flights on Bengaluru-Chennai, it has stopped operations on Bengaluru – Mangalore and Bengaluru – Hyderabad route. Jet Airways will restart Bengaluru -Hyderabad with 2x daily Boeing 737 flights from March 31, 2019, and increase Bengaluru – Chennai to 3x daily Boeing 737 flights from March 31, 2019.

Jet Airways has grounded all its 5 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. Currently, the following Jet Airways aircraft are on the ground.

Aircraft type	Aircraft Registration	Status	Airport Grounded At	Last Flight	Last Flight on	Notes
737-700	VT-JGX	Grounded	Mumbai	9W 462 MAA-BOM	March 29, 2019
737-700	VT-JGY	Grounded	Delhi	9W 715 VNS-DEL	February 10, 2019
737-700	VT-SIZ	Grounded	Hyderabad	S2 9715 BOM-HYD	March 21, 2019
737-700	VT-SJA	Grounded	Mumbai	S2 462 MAA-BOM	March 20, 2019	BOM-HYD on March 23, 2019
737-800	VT-JBB	Grounded	Mumbai	9W 543 DXB-BOM	March 18, 2019	Back on March 25, 2019 9W 560 BOM-DOH. AOG on April 11, 2019 after 9W 263 KTM-DEL
737-800	VT-JBC	Grounded	Delhi	9W 9719 CCU-DEL	March 20, 2019	Back on March 27, 2019 9W 651 DEL-IXC. AOG on April 10, 2019 after 9W 373 DEL-BOM
737-800	VT-JBD	Grounded	Bengaluru	9W 884 MAA-BLR	March 11, 2019
737-800	VT-JBE	Grounded	Hyderabad	BOM-HYD	March 13, 2019
737-800	VT-JBF	Grounded	Hyderabad	BOM-HYD	March 12, 2019
737-800	VT-JBG	Grounded	Hyderabad	9W 9701 COK-HYD	October 12, 2018
737-800	VT-JBH	Redelivered	Hyderabad	9W 9671 DEL-HYD	February 16, 2019	Redelivery (March 7, 2019)
737-800	VT-JBJ	Grounded	Delhi	BLR-DEL	March 21, 2019	Back on March 30, 2019 9W 846 DEL-ATQ. AOG on April 11, 2019 after 9W 304 DEL-BOM
737-800	VT-JBK	Grounded	Delhi	9W 17 SIN-DEL	March 18, 2019	Back on March 26, 2019 9W 272 DEL-DAC. AOG on April 10, 2019 after 9W 483 BOM-BLR
737-800	VT-JBL	Grounded	Mumbai	9W 990 BHJ-BOM	October 15, 2018
737-800	VT-JBM	Redelivered	Seletar		February 9, 2019	Redelivery
737-800	VT-JBN	Redelivered	Seletar		February 8, 2019	Redelivery
737-800	VT-JBP	Redelivered	Seletar		February 23, 2019	Redelivery
737-800	VT-JBQ	Grounded	Mumbai	9W 442 BLR-BOM	March 29, 2019
737-800	VT-JBR	Grounded	Delhi	9W 301 BOM-DEL	March 26, 2019
737-800	VT-JBS	Grounded	Delhi	BOM-DEL	March 31, 2019
737-800	VT-JBU	Grounded	Hyderabad	9W 9691 BOM-HYD	March 7, 2019
737-800	VT-JBV	Grounded	Kochi	BDQ-COK	March 11, 2019
737-800	VT-JBW	Grounded	Mumbai	9W 438 IXE-BOM	March 11, 2019	Back on April 2, 2019 9W 615 BOM-CCU. AOG on April 12, 2019 after operating 9W 3502 ATQ-BOM
737-800	VT-JBX	Grounded	Mumbai	9W 3502 ATQ-BOM	March 29, 2019
737-800	VT-JFA	Redelivered	Mumbai	9W 9721 DEL-BOM	March 22, 2019	Redelivery March 26, 2019
737-800	VT-JFB	Grounded	Hyderabad	BOM-HYD	March 24, 2019
737-800	VT-JFC	Grounded	Vadodara	9W 9724 BOM-BDQ	March 23, 2019
737-800	VT-JFD	Grounded	Hyderabad	9W 9747 BOM-HYD	March 13, 2019
737-800	VT-JFE	Grounded	Mumbai	9W 3502 ATQ-BOM	April 10, 2019
737-800	VT-JFF	Grounded	Hyderabad	9W 9712 DEL-HYD	February 6, 2019
737-800	VT-JFG	Grounded	Delhi	9W 263 KTM-DEL	March 19, 2019
737-800	VT-JFH	Grounded	Delhi	9W 9674 DEL-DEL	February 22, 2019
737-800	VT-JFJ	Grounded	Nagpur	9W 865 BOM-NAG	February 26, 2019	9W 866 NAG-BOM Cancelled
737-800	VT-JFK	Grounded	Kochi	BLR-COK	February 27, 2019	DEL-CNN on March 26, 2019
737-800	VT-JFL	Grounded	Delhi	9W 606 GAU-DEL	January 28, 2019
737-800	VT-JFM	Grounded	Delhi	9W 361 BOM-DEL	February 26, 2019
737-800	VT-JFN	Grounded	Bhopal	9W 9725 DEL-BHO	March 23, 2019	Back on March 28, 2019 9W 835 DEL-DED till March 31, 2019
737-800	VT-JFP	Grounded	Bengaluru	9W 9706 COK-BLR	March 15, 2019
737-800	VT-JFQ	Grounded	Mumbai	9W 304 DEL-BOM	February 26, 2019
737-800	VT-JFR	Grounded	Bhopal	BOM-BHO	March 23, 2019
737-800	VT-JFS	Grounded	Kannur	9W 9709 BOM-CNN	March 18, 2019
737-800	VT-JFT	Grounded	Kannur	BOM-CNN	March 18, 2019
737-800	VT-JFW	Grounded	Hyderabad	BOM-HYD	March 3, 2019
737-800	VT-JFX	Grounded	Mumbai	9W 610 CCU-BOM	April 10, 2019
737-800	VT-JFY	Grounded	Hyderabad	BOM-HYD	March 3, 2019
737-800	VT-JFZ	Grounded	Hyderabad	BOM-HYD	March 2, 2019
737-800	VT-JGA	Grounded	Mumbai	9W 424 CJB-BOM	March 12, 2019
737-800	VT-JGE	Grounded	Mumbai	9W 460 MAA-BOM	December 12, 2018
737-800	VT-JGF	Redelivered	Tbilisi	9W 9072 BOM-TBS	March 15, 2019	Redelivery
737-800	VT-JGG	Grounded	Mumbai	9W 9683 DEL-BOM	February 28, 2019	BOM-CNN on March 20, 2019
737-800	VT-JGJ	Grounded	Mumbai	S2 417 JAI-BOM	February 3, 2019
737-800	VT-JGK	Redelivered	Mumbai	9W 452 HYD-BOM	March 19, 2019	Redelivery on March 30 9W 9076
737-800	VT-JGP	Grounded	Mumbai	9W 376 DEL-BOM	March 20, 2019	BOM-BHO on March 28, 2019
737-800	VT-JGQ	Grounded	Bengaluru	9W 9702 HYD-BOM	March 21, 2019	BOM-BDQ March 28, 2019
737-800	VT-JGR	Grounded	Bengaluru	9W 495 BOM-BLR	March 11, 2019
737-800	VT-JGS	Grounded	Mumbai	9W 1304 DEL-BOM	March 13, 2019
737-800	VT-JGT	Grounded	Mumbai	9W 3502 ATQ-BOM	March 25, 2019
737-800	VT-JGU	Grounded	Mumbai	9W 422 BLR-BOM	April 2, 2019
737-800	VT-JGV	Grounded	Hyderabad	9W 457 BOM-HYD	January 2, 2019
737-800	VT-JGW	Grounded	Mumbai	9W 3502 ATQ-BOM	April 11, 2019
737-800	VT-JLE	Grounded	Bengaluru	DEL-BLR	March 30, 2019
737-800	VT-JLF	Grounded	Hyderabad	BOM-HYD	March 30, 2019
737-800	VT-JTA	Grounded	Delhi	9W 63 BKK-DEL	March 1, 2019
737-800	VT-JTB	Grounded	Benguluru	9W 775 PNQ-BLR	February 7, 2019
737-800	VT-JTC	Grounded	Hyderabad	BOM-HYD	March 21, 2019
737-800	VT-JTD	Redelivered	Delhi	9W 361 BOM-DEL	January 31, 2019	Redelivery (March 7, 2019)
737-800	VT-JTE	Grounded	Kochi	9W 9681 DEL-COK	February 28, 2019
737-800	VT-JTF	Redelivered	Delhi	9W 310 BOM-DEL	February 28, 2019	Redelivery March 28, 2019
737-800	VT-JTG	Redelivered	Delhi	9W 339 BOM-DEL	March 1, 2019	Redelivery March 28, 2019
737-800	VT-JTH	Grounded	Delhi	BOM-DEL	March 31, 2019
737-800	VT-JTK	Grounded	BLR	BLR-DEL	March 31, 2019
737-800	VT-JTL	Grounded	Delhi	9W 9684 GAU-DEL	February 28, 2019
737-800	VT-JTM	Grounded	Mumbai	9W 492 MAA-BOM	February 27, 2019
737-800	VT-JTN	Grounded	Delhi	9W 9742 BOM-DEL	March 31, 2019
737-800	VT-SJI	Grounded	Mumbai	S2 3502 ATQ-BOM	April 17, 2019
737-800	VT-SJJ	Grounded	Mumbai	S2 312 DEL-BOM	March 18, 2019
737-900	VT-JGC	Grounded	Hyderabad	BOM-HYD	March 13, 2019
737-900	VT-JGD	Grounded	Delhi	9W 740 MAA-DEL	November 22, 2018
737-900ER	VT-JBY	Grounded	Kochi	9W 9705 BOM-COK	March 14, 2019
737-900ER	VT-JBZ	Grounded	Kochi	9W 9707 BOM-COK	March 17, 2019
737-900ER	VT-JLH	Grounded	Kochi	BOM-COK	March 9, 2019
737-900ER	VT-JLJ	Grounded	Bengaluru	BOM-BLR	March 13, 2019
737MAX	VT-JXA	Grounded	Hyderabad	9W 9730 BLR-HYD	February 27, 2019
737MAX	VT-JXB	Grounded	Hyderabad	9W 9730 BLR-HYD	February 25, 2019
737MAX	VT-JXC	Grounded	Mumbai	9W 628 CCU-BOM	January 23, 2019
737MAX	VT-JXD	Grounded	Kolkata	9W 629 BOM-CCU	February 25, 2019
737MAX	VT-JXE	Grounded	Kochi	BOM-COK	February 28, 2019
777-300ER	VT-JEH	Grounded	Delhi	9W 17 SIN-DEL	March 17, 2019	Back on March 27, 2019 9W 122 DEL-LHR. AOG since April 12, 2019 after 9W 233 AMS-DEL
777-300ER	VT-JEK	Grounded	Mumbai	9W 117 LHR-BOM	March 30, 2019
777-300ER	VT-JEM	Grounded	Delhi	9W 121 LHR-DEL	April 2, 2019	Operated DEL-LHR-BOM on April 11, 2019
777-300ER	VT-JEQ	Grounded	Mumbai	9W 231 AMS-BOM	April 11, 2019
777-300ER	VT-JES	Grounded	Mumbai	9W 123 CDG-BOM	April 11, 2019
777-300ER	VT-JET	Grounded	Delhi	9W 361 BOM-DEL	April 12, 2019
777-300ER	VT-JEU	Grounded	Delhi	9W 121 LHR-DEL	April 11, 2019
777-300ER	VT-JEV	Grounded	Mumbai	9W 119 LHR-BOM	April 11, 2019
777-300ER	VT-JEW	Grounded/Seized	Amsterdam	9W 232 BOM-AMS	April 10, 2019	On the ground at Delhi from April 2 to 6, 2019
777-300ER	VT-JEX	Grounded	Chennai	9W 9705 BOM-MAA	September 29, 2018
A330-200	VT-JWP	Grounded	Delhi	9W 233 AMS-DEL	April 11, 2019
A330-200	VT-JWQ	Grounded/Redelivered	Mumbai	9W 362 DEL-BOM	March 21, 2019	9W 9081 BOM-MAD on April 11, 2019
A330-200	VT-JWV	Grounded	Mumbai	9W 129 MAN-BOM	November 17, 2018
A330-200	VT-JWW	Grounded	Mumbai	9W 9745 DEL-BOM	April 4, 2019
A330-300	VT-JWR	Grounded	Delhi	BOM-DEL	March 23, 2019	9W 9748 DEL-BOM April 6, 2019
A330-300	VT-JWS	Grounded	Bengaluru	9W 235 AMS-BLR	April 10, 2019	De-registration requested. BLR-BOM on April 13, 2019
A330-300	VT-JWT	Grounded	Chennai	9W 845 DEL-MAA	April 10, 2019	De-registration requested. MAA-BOM on April 13, 2019
A330-300	VT-JWU	Grounded	Delhi	9W 233 AMS-DEL	March 22, 2019
ATR 72-500	VT-JCJ	Grounded	Chennai	9W 875 BLR-MAA	December 11, 2018
ATR 72-500	VT-JCK	Grounded	Delhi	9W 689 JDH-DEL	January 1, 2019
ATR 72-500	VT-JCL	Grounded	Delhi	9W 758 IDR-DEL	April 17, 2019
ATR 72-500	VT-JCM	Grounded	Delhi	9W 756 JAI-DEL	April 17, 2019
ATR 72-500	VT-JCN	Grounded	Indore	9W 794 IDR-DEL	December 6, 2019
ATR 72-500	VT-JCP	Grounded	Chennai	9W 871 BLR-MAA	January 3, 2019
ATR 72-500	VT-JCQ	Grounded	Delhi	9W 826 DED-DEL	April 17, 2019
ATR 72-500	VT-JCR	Grounded	Delhi	9W 756 JAI-DEL	April 15, 2019
ATR 72-500	VT-JCS	Grounded	Delhi	9W 928 BHO-DEL	April 17, 2019
ATR 72-500	VT-JCT	Grounded	Chennai	9W 9696 MAA-DEL	March 10, 2019
ATR 72-500	VT-JCU	Grounded	Chennai	9W 867 BLR-MAA	February 8, 2019
ATR 72-500	VT-JCV	Grounded	Delhi	9W 646 IXC-DEL	April 17, 2019
ATR 72-500	VT-JCW	Grounded	Bhopal	9W 893 DEL-BHO	April 17, 2019
ATR 72-500	VT-JDC	Grounded	Chennai	9W 9717 BLR-MAA	February 10, 2019
ATR 72-500	VT-JDD	Grounded	Delhi	9W 9638 BOM-DEL	November 15, 2018
ATR 72-600	VT-JCX	Grounded	Mumbai	9W 9654 DEL-BOM	December 26, 2018

Of course, there is a new spate of cancellations since yesterday, due to operational reasons. It is estimated that 60 flights are cancelled just today on the Jet Airways network. As many as 46 aircraft are grounded, and we have not been able to find out one aircraft here. Also, some are on their redelivery process to the lessors at the moment, leading to a fleet shrinkage.

Jet Airways has 46% of its 119 aircraft fleet on the ground currently.

IndiGo

IndiGo is having a huge pilot crisis at the moment. There is a mismatch in terms of the number of captains to the number of first officers and also pilots to aircraft ratio. IndiGo is blaming slow induction process of expat pilots for this and they are expected to be back on track by April.

Aircraft type	Aircraft Registeration	Airport Grounded At	Last Flight	Last Flight on	Notes
A320	VT-INY	Hyderabad	6E 315 MAA-HYD	February 22, 2019
A320	VT-IDO		DEL-KUL	February 19, 2019	Redelivery/ Maintenance?
A320	VT-IDW	Chennai	6E 2128 DEL-MAA	February 26, 2019
A320	VT-IEB	Hyderabad	6E 122 PNQ-HYD	February 25, 2019	Scheduled to operate 6E 717 HYD-IXR on 28-02-2019
A320	VT-IEC				Did not fly on 13-16 Feb, 19-21 Feb, 23 Feb
A320	VT-IEE				Did not fly on Feb 16-21
A320	VT-IHG		DEL-KUL	January 19, 2019	Redelivery/ Maintenance?
A320neo	VT-IVM	Benguluru	6E 566 BOM-BLR	February 26, 2019	Scheduled to operate 6E 2475 BLR-DEL on 28-02-2019

There have been mass cancellations and last week aircraft were spotted at Bangalore and Hyderabad as if they haven’t moved for a while. However, aircraft haven’t been grounded per se, and a lot of them are operating one flight a day sometimes. IndiGo has reduced aircraft utilisation which is a bit tough to crack manually with 213 aircraft in operation.  Also, it seems they have a whole lot more of their pilots heading to airlines in the middle-east, but this is just hear say at the moment.

IndiGo plans to take an aircraft every week just like last year. Hope they will avoid such a situation in future.

Air India

Air India is also financially unstable. It has a huge debt. Couple that with poor aircraft utilisation on the back of long periods of maintenance and poor upkeep of aircraft. Many Air India aircraft including some Boeing 777-300ERs and Boeing 787-8s haven’t flown for more than six months. Same is the situations with a couple of A319 and A321. We have actively covered Air India’s aircraft utilisation and groundings in the following posts.

• Air India’s terrible fleet utilisation & golden codeshare opportunity missed?
• Grounded Air India A321s will be back in the air by December 2018?

Aircraft type	Aircraft Registeration	Status	Airport Grounded At	Last Flight	Last Flight on	Notes
A319	VT-SCN	Operational	Kolkata	AI 628 NAG-BOM	February 7, 2019	Back on March 6, 2019 AI 705 CCU-DIB FlightAware shows only 5 flights operated from November 28, 2018 to February 27, 2019
A319	VT-SCR	Operational	Mumbai	AI 626 LKO-BOM	April 07, 2019	A few one off flights in June and July 2019, back from August 7, 2019
A319	VT-SCS	Operational	Mumbai	AI 662 GOI-BOM	February 10, 2019	Back on June 29, 2019 as AI 54 BOM-COK
A319	VT-SCT	Grounded	Delhi	AI 821 IXJ-SXR	January 14, 2019	Before that operated AI 812 LKO-DEL on 12-11-2018
A319	VT-SCU	Grounded	Mumbai	AI 668 TRV-BOM	December 26, 2018	Operated one-off flight HYD-BOM on March 15, 2019
A319	VT-SCV	Operational	Delhi	AI 1764 DEL-CCU	January 17, 2019	Operated one-off flight BHO-BOM on March 23, 2019. Back on June 7, 2019 as AI230 CCU-DAC
A319	VT-SCX	Grounded	Delhi	AI 628 NAG-BOM	February 3, 2019	FlightAware shows only 5 recorded operated flights since 13-11-2018
A321	VT-PPL	Operational	Hyderabad	AI 542 HYD-TIR	February 2, 2019	Accident at Tirupati Airport. Before that operated last flight AI 24 DEL-BOM on 12-01-2019. Back on July 27, 2019 as AI 661 BOM-GOI
A321	VT-PPM	Operational	Delhi	DEL-BOM (Cancelled)	June 21, 2018	Back on May 8, 2019 as AI 91 BOM-AMD
A321	VT-PPN	Grounded	Hyderabad	AI 541 TIR-HYD	January 29, 2019
A321	VT-PPT	Operational	Mumbai	AI 683 BOM-GOI	August 11, 2018	Back on March 8, 2019 AI 618 HYD-BOM
A321	VT-PPU	Grounded	Mumbai	AI 665 DEL-BOM	September 20, 2018
A321	VT-PPW	Grounded	Mumbai	AI 614 AMD-BOM	April 3, 2019
A321	VT-PPX	Grounded	Delhi	AI 806 BOM-DEL (Cancelled flight on November 28, 2018)	Maybe July 22, 2018 as AI 630 NAG-BOM
A320	VT-EDC	Operational	Delhi	AI 820 BDQ-DEL	February 19, 2019	Back on July 2, 2019
A320	VT-EDF	Operational	Delhi	AI 840 HYD-DEL	February 13, 2019	Back on March 20, 2019 AI 439 DEL-MAA
747-400	VT-ESP	Operational	Mumbai	AI 5226 MED-BOM	September 18, 2019	Back on March 9, 2019 as AI 144 BOM-DEL
747-400	VT-ESO	Operational	Mumbai	AI 966 HYD-BOM	May 28, 2019	AI 1
747-400	VT-EVA	Grounded	Mumbai	AI 191 DEL-BOM	May 13, 2019
747-400	VT-EVB	Operational	Mumbai	AI 966 HYD-BOM	January 29, 2019	Back on June 24, 2019 as AI 144 BOM-DEL
777-300ER	VT-ALO	Grounded	Mumbai	BOM-BOM	August 9, 2018
777-300ER	VT-ALU	Operational	Nagpur	AI 1469 DEL-NAG	September 22, 2018	Back on June 6, 2019 as AI 144 BOM-DEL
787-8	VT-ANB	Operational	Mumbai	AI 349 DEL-BOM	January 7, 2019	Back on May 24, 2019 as AI 31 BOM-AMD
787-8	VT-ANG	Operational	Mumbai	AI 331 BKK-BOM	April 7, 2018	Back on May 22, 2019 as AI 31 BOM-AMD
787-8	VT-ANJ	Grounded	Mumbai	AI 865 DEL-BOM	October 9, 2018
787-8	VT-ANK	Operational	Mumbai	AI 331 BKK-BOM	July 8, 2018	Back on April 6, 2019 AI 330 BOM-BKK
787-8	VT-ANM	Grounded	Mumbai	AI 863 DEL-BOM	January 2, 2019
787-8	VT-ANN	Operational	Mumbai	AI 349 DEL-BOM	February 25, 2019	Back on April 13, 2019 AI 310 BOM-DEL
787-8	VT-ANO	Operational	Mumbai	AI 315 DEL-BOM	April 28, 2019	Back on July 12, 2019 AI 687 BOM-DEL
787-8	VT-ANU	Operational	Delhi	AI 121 DEL-FRA Suffered mid-air decompression.	March 6, 2019	Back on May 31, 2019 as AI 20 DEL-CCU.

While a couple of A319s are scheduled to operate flights from March 1, 2019, they have had an interesting flight schedule since November 2018. The go-to answer for this poor utilisations has always been,

Not enough money for spares. Aircraft will be operational soon.

Air India hasn’t had a net addition of aircraft for quite some time now. The newly delivered A320neos replaced the ~24-year-old double boggy A320s. Yet Air India continues to operate a 24.4-year-old double boggy A320 (VT-ESL). Interestingly, Air India had planned to retire all the double bogeys by December 2018 and the last one VT-ESL was stored in October 2018. VT-ESL has since been recalled to operate scheduled flights.

One would naturally expect Air India to bring back A319s and A321s to service but I guess they have something else in mind. Hopefully, with Ashwani Lohani back as the CEO of Air India, things will improve.

SpiceJet, Alliance Air and Air India Express

SpiceJet is carrying out normal operations so is Alliance Air and Air India Express. A few aircraft are out for maintenance and a few have been damaged due to an accident. Here is a list of all the aircraft currently on the ground.

Airline	Aircraft type	Aircraft Registeration	Airport Grounded At	Last Flight	Last Flight on	Notes
Air India Express	737-800	VT-AXJ	Mumbai	IX 252 SHJ-BOM	February 25, 2019
Air India Express	737-800	VT-AXM	Thiruvananthapuram	IX 540 DXB-TRV	February 3, 2019
Air India Express	737-800	VT-AXU	Thiruvananthapuram	IX 538 AUH-TRV	February 25, 2019
Air India Express	737-800	VT-AXZ	Mumbai	IX 252 SHJ-BOM	February 18, 2019
Alliance Air	ATR 72-400	VT-ABA	Delhi	9I 730 GAU-CCU	August 25, 2018
Alliance Air	ATR 72-600	VT-AIT	Kolhapur	9I 875 HYD-KLH	February 13, 2019
Alliance Air	ATR 72-600	VT-AIX	Diu	9I 623 BOM-DIU	January 26, 2019	Accident at Diu airport
Alliance Air	ATR 72-600	VT-RKG	Kolkata	9I 712 SHL-CCU	February 25, 2019
SpiceJet	737-800	VT-SLG	Hyderabad	SG 342 JAI-HYD	February 11, 2019
SpiceJet	737-800	VT-SPF	Delhi	SG-192 BLR-DEL	January 8, 2019
SpiceJet	DASH 8 Q400	VT-SUC	Jabalpur	SG 2458 BOM-JLR	December 4, 2018
SpiceJet	DASH 8 Q400	VT-SUF	Delhi	SG 2420 VNS-DEL	February 18, 2019
SpiceJet	DASH 8 Q400	VT-SUU	Chennai	SG 3022 CJB-MAA	February 18, 2019

India is one of the fastest growing aviation markets, but clearly, we are running out strategy, destinations and manpower and the money to continue with this explosive growth. It has now shown cracks. The high cost of operations and low yields coupled with a highly competitive environment are eating away profits. New entrants, on the other hand, have slot and rules constraints which are hampering growth as well as profitability. Infrastructure constraints and manpower shortage are also taking a toll.

What are your thoughts on this massive number of aircraft grounded across India?