By Staff Correspondent
More than 75 aircraft of Indian carriers are presently grounded due to engine and maintenance related issues, as said by Aviation consultancy firm CAPA
The CAPA in its India Mid-Year Outlook 2023 released on Tuesday, November 1, mentioned that “These will have a significant impact on financials in the second half,”. These aircraft that account for about 10-12% of the Indian fleet, are grounded due to engine and maintenance related issues.
The report mentioned that serious supply chain issues have thereby impacted the capacity and affecting current and future deliveries, it said, adding that such issues would proliferate in the fiscal starting in April the next year which, in turn, will impact future deliveries.
None of the domestic airlines including two listed companies i.e. Spicejet and IndiGo have not yet made any announcement on the grounding of aircraft.
Delays in upcoming deliveries might also reflect liquidity issues since the income from the leaseback and sale financing could be less than planned, as per CAPA.
Delays in plane deliveries could also result in the rise of unit costs for carriers due to the requirement of extending the leases of older planes in the fleet, which have higher fuel consumption and maintenance costs than the new planes that would have replaced them. Non-supply issues are also expected to come up in the following years such as shortages of engineers and pilots, says the report.
These grounded planes are contributing to increased losses and have developed critical challenges against the backdrop of an already hostile cost environment.
