IndiGo may delay its low-cost, long-haul flight plan over high fuel price

The airline is not convinced that it will have a sizeable passenger traffic to make wide body operations profitable

High fuel price and aircraft acquisition cost have prompted IndiGo to have second thoughts on acquiring Airbus A330neo wide-body jets, through which it had planned to launch low-cost, long-haul direct flights to European cities from the coming winter.

Instead, the airline is weighing options to acquire A321LR, which will help it operate flights to European cities in nine-hour range. Airbus advertises the A321LR for the middle-of-market segment, with 16 business class (36-inch pitch) and 190 economy (30-inch pitch) for a total of 206 seats. The aircraft demonstrated a test flight flying non-stop for 11 hours.

“No wide body as of now. Flying