A total of 164 aircraft continue to remain idle at 15 Indian airports. Maximum number of aircraft lying idle are at Delhi airport (64), Bengaluru airport (27), Mumbai airport (24) and Chennai airport (20). The other airports include Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar,, Cochin, , Goa-Mopa, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Juhu, Kolkata, Kannur, Nagpur, and Raipur.
At the Delhi airport, IndiGo’s 24 aircraft and Go First’s 23 planes are lying idle. Other carriers whose planes are grounded there are SpiceJet(6), Air India(2), Zoom Air(5), Jet Airways(3), and Alliance Air(1). The grounded aircraft include those of IndiGo, SpiceJet, Go First, Air India, Zoom Air, and Alliance Air.
IndiGo has 17 aircraft parked at Bengaluru airport whereas, nine aircraft of Go First stay grounded, and one plane of SpiceJet is lying idle at the Bengaluru airport.
In Mumbai, nine aircraft of Go First and six aircraft of Jet Airways are lying idle. Tata Group-owned Air India has four aircraft, General Aviation has four aircraft, and SpiceJet has one aircraft grounded at the second busiest airport in India.
Indigo tops chart
Commercially operational airlines including IndiGo and SpiceJet have the highest number of idle aircraft due to engine issues with 44 and 26 aircraft, respectively. However, IndiGo’s fleet size is 330-plus aircraft, whereas SpiceJet has only 40 other operational aircraft.
In an earlier response to the parliament, the Ministry had stated that 95 per cent of the aircraft on the ground in India today is because of engine supplier Pratt & Whitney (P&W)‘s supply chain constraints. Debt-strapped GoFirst’s entire fleet of 53 aircraft remained parked at multiple airports in India.
Meanwhile, 29 numbers of airplanes are lying idle at the airports owned and managed by Airports Authority of India (AAI). However, AAI has a security deposit/ bank guarantee of around ₹730 crore against these aircraft. “AAI follows up with the airlines regularly for disposal of their idle aircraft. AAI has a security deposit/ bank guarantee of around ₹730 crore against these aircraft,” the Ministry said.
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