IndiGo eyes more international routes

India’s largest carrier by passenger volumes — IndiGo — has decided to operate wide-body aircraft in the next few months to meet the demand of international operations in the aviation business, an IndiGo statement confirmed.”As an interim measure, we have decided to take on wet/damp lease certain aircraft to cover the shortfall for our scheduled international operations,” the budget carrier said.”International air travel is going through a strong period of recovery, and demand continues to rise in the upcoming festive and winter season. This is a positive sign for the industry and IndiGo remains very bullish on strong growth for international travel to and from India in the future,” IndiGo added.This induction of the low-budget carrier into the wide-body aircraft league will give a tough competition to other airlines such as Vistara and Air IndiaThe government had recently discussed with Indian airlines to operate wide-body aircraft to make India a global aviation hub. The civil aviation ministry had asked low-fare airlines like IndiGo and SpiceJet to explore the possibility of inducting wide-body aircraft in their fleet and also explore strengthening as full-service airlines such as Vistara and Air India.”IndiGo currently has over 275 narrow-body Airbus aircraft in its fleet and 26 international routes including 74 domestic routes,” a company official said.IndiGo has received approval from aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for the induction of wide-body aircraft under wet lease.