IndiGo still battling Pratt & Whitney engine woes, 10% fleet grounded

All 33 grounded planes of IndiGo are powered by Pratt and Whitney engines

About 10.2 per cent of IndiGo’s total 323 aircraft fleet is currently grounded, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium. All 33 grounded planes of IndiGo are powered by Pratt & Whitney (P&W) engines.

On May 3, Go First suspended its flights and filed an insolvency application, squarely blaming P&W for its cash crunch. The company stated that about half of its 54 aircraft were grounded on May 3 due to a delay in the supply of engines by the US-based company. P&W has denied the charges.

IndiGo, which has 164 P&W-powered planes in its fleet, has also been dealing with grounded planes. In May, it asked P&W to quickly supply engines so that it could bring its grounded planes back into service. However, not much has changed in the last three months for India’s largest carrier.

As of May 3, Cirium reported that 36 of the 163 P&W-powered planes of IndiGo were grounded. On August 1, after three months, 33 of the 164 P&W-powered planes of IndiGo were still grounded, according to Cirium.

IndiGo and P&W did not immediately respond to queries sent by Business Standard regarding this matter.

Meanwhile, between August 2022 and August 2023, India’s largest carrier, IndiGo, boosted its flights by about 20 per cent, thanks to the new planes that are not powered by P&W engines. IndiGo had shifted from P&W to CFM as the former’s engines had been suffering from glitches.