IndiGo, the country’s largest airline, on Friday said that it has sought a final approval from the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to wet lease Boeing 777 aircraft, which will be used to operate flights on the Delhi-Istanbul route.

This comes after the ministry of civil aviation allowed domestic airlines to take widebody planes on wet lease for up to one year as it seeks to make India a key international hub for air traffic.

Under a wet lease arrangement, planes are leased along with the operating crew and engineers.

This will be the first time that IndiGo will be inducting wide-body planes into its fleet. The announcement also comes at a time global supply chain issues are impacting aircraft deliveries.

Last week, Air India said that it will lease 12 more aircraft, including both A320 neo and Boeing 777, which could be inducted into its existing fleet in the first half of 2023.

A PTI report quoting a DGCA official said that IndiGo will wet-lease two B777 aircraft.

“After the previous receipt of in-principle approval for inducting B777 aircraft on a wet lease basis from MoCA, IndiGo has now applied for final DGCA approval for these operations under the prescribed procedure,” the airline said in a press statement.