The sale of more than 500 aircraft is at stake as India’s largest airline is on a shopping spree.
Air India, the country’s largest in terms of international routes and second largest in the domestic market, is trying to outgrow stiff competition from low-cost carriers and the Gulf giants with the help of new, more fuel-efficient planes.
According to sources to Bloomberg, the purchase is basically already complete and could be presented as soon as this week.
From European Airbus, Air India is expected to order around 210 single-aisle A320s and 40 of the wider A350s. Boeing is said to have secured the sale of 190 planes of the 737 Max model as well as 20 of the 787 Dreamliner, as well as ten 777x aircraft. As for Boeing’s part, there are various option agreements on additional purchases, and the exact number of aircraft may vary slightly due to the complex nature of the agreements.
Air India was for a long time the national airline of India. Over the years, the company has made large losses, had a high debt burden and has repeatedly been saved by taxpayers’ money. But last year the company was sold to the country’s largest conglomerate Tata, which actually founded Air India in the 1930s.
Tata announced in December that all of its airlines would be merged, apart from Air India, Vistara and budget airlines Air India Express and Airasia India.