Indigo announces record results while signalling a change from SLB model

Today, IndiGo announced a major, but long expected, move away from its sale-leaseback (SLB) model as chief financial officer, Rohit Philip, stated that IndiGo will shift to a model of outright purchase: “Aircraft kept in the fleet for longer are better owned than leased as direct ownership leads to cost optimisation,” he said. Until now, Indigo has been a major driver of the aircraft sale-leaseback market but the long-awaited changes to the global accounting standards means the strategy that has served the airline so very well since inception may have had its day – to an extent at least. For