Air India finalizes deal with Airbus for 250 aircraft: Report

Mumbai:

Air India has finalized an order for around 250 aircraft with Airbus and the deal is expected to be announced next week, a source said on Thursday.

The informed source also said that the airline has signed an agreement with Boeing for about 200 aircraft.

Specific details could not be immediately confirmed and there was no immediate comment from Air India on the deals.

Air India, owned by the Tata Group, is expanding its operations as well as its fleet.

On January 27, Air India President Campbell Wilson said that the airline is finalizing a historic order of new aircraft.

Air India, which was earlier under government ownership, has been getting new planes for more than 16 years.

It hasn’t bought a single plane since 2005 and last ordered 111 planes – 68 with Boeing and the rest 43 with Airbus – for US$10.8 billion.

The source told PTI that the deal with Airbus for about 250 aircraft has been completed and the announcement is likely to be next week.

The deal is likely to include 40 Airbus A350 wide-body aircraft and Air India will be the first Indian airline to operate the aircraft.

In the past, Air India operated wide-body A330s.

On Wednesday, aviation consultancy CAPA said Indian airlines are likely to place orders for up to 1,700 aircraft by 2024, and Air India may make the first move to order about 500 aircraft.

Currently, Indian airlines operate less than 50 wide-body aircraft, which is a meager number for such an important market. In contrast, Emirates alone has a fleet of more than 260 wide-body, Kappa said.

Recently, IndiGo started its large-scale operations on the India-Turkey route with a B777 leased for service, and plans to introduce two more such aircraft.

(Except for the headline, this story was not edited by the Alendronaterx staff and was published from a syndicated feed.)