In the midst of a boom in travel, a lack of aircraft hinders growth plans: CEO of IndiGo

Reuters says: According to Chief Executive Officer Pieter Elbers, Interglobe Aviation Ltd.'s efforts to ride a global and Indian travel boom are being hampered by a lack of aircraft.

"There's an open door in the business sectors where we might want to serve our clients and we can't make it happen yet to the degree we might want to do that," Elbers told Reuters in a meeting, refering to tension from the lack of airplane supply.

As demand for air travel rose from the pandemic lows, India's aviation market is booming. However, Boeing and Airbus are rushing to fill the overflowing order books in light of the global demand for new aircraft.

"In terms of size, our operation was probably half as big a year ago. Therefore, we have concentrated entirely on returning to 1800 flights per day."

Also Read: IndiGo's expansion plan begins with 500 Airbus orders Elbers stated that the airline would have "a steady flow" of deliveries until the end of this decade.

A few weeks after Air India announced a record-setting order for 470 jets, aviation consultancy CAPA India has stated that it anticipates receiving at least 1,300 additional orders from Indian airlines within the next one to two years.

According to industry sources who spoke with Reuters earlier this month, IndiGo, which has until now been the sole purchaser of narrow-body jets from Airbus, is also in talks with Boeing to surpass Air India's record order for more than 500 passenger jets.

A total of 830 Airbus A320-family aircraft have been ordered by the airline, but more than 400 have not yet been delivered.

Elbers stated that the A321 XLRs, Airbus' newest and largest narrowbody airliner, are "all work in progress" in terms of their delivery trajectory.

"That one hasn't been finalized yet."