India’s IndiGo Airlines to add four A321(P2F)s

IndiGo Airlines (6E, Delhi Int’l) has announced that it will add four A321-200(P2F) converted freighters, with the first delivery scheduled for the first half of 2022. The Indian low-cost carrier said that it had already signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with an undisclosed lessor for the first two A321-200s and was in the process of sourcing the other two aircraft. The narrowbodies will be converted for the airline by Elbe Flugzeugwerke, a joint venture of ST Engineering and Airbus. IndiGo said that the deliveries of all four aircraft would conclude within a year of the first delivery, i.e. by mid-2023. It indicated that it remained open to adding more freighters in the future. “IndiGo was already the largest carrier of cargo in domestic India before COVID-19, and we expect the market to continue to grow after the pandemic,” Chief Executive Ronojoy Dutta said. The airline underlined that the A321(P2F)s would be operationally well-integrated into its all-Airbus passenger fleet. According to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module, the LCC currently operates eighty-seven A320-200s, 121 A320-200Ns, thirty-nine A321-200NXs, and twenty-six ATR72-600s. It has a further 570 A320neo Family aircraft on firm order from Airbus, making it the world’s largest customer for the family, as well as a further twenty-four ATR72-600s from Avions de Transport Régional. Rival LCC SpiceJet (SG, Delhi Int’l) was active on the cargo market even before the pandemic. The airline’s freighter fleet, excluding makeshift freighters, comprises three B737-700(BDSF)s and two B737-800(BCF)s. India’s third large LCC, GoAir (G8, Mumbai Int’l), does not operate any freighters.