Indian aviation flies into a perfect storm
NEW DELHI : When Iranian missiles slammed into US bases in Iraq last week in response to the killing of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, airline executives in India were keenly following the fallout. They were on edge because a flare-up in crude oil prices—at a time when the Indian aviation industry is at a crucial crossroad—could signal not just deeper losses but also the potential shutdown of at least one leading private airline.
Two of India’s leading airlines —IndiGo and GoAir—are already struggling with repeated snags in Pratt and Whitney (P&W) engines on their fleet of Airbus 320neo aircraft, while another, SpiceJet, has been hit by the grounding of Boeing 737 MAX planes after emerging as one of the largest global customers for the aircraft, which has been in the middle of a global firestorm after two suspicious crashes.
