Air India on Monday confirmed that it placed an order to purchase 100 more Airbus aircraft, which include 10 widebody A350 and 90 narrowbody A320 Family aircraft.
Airbus, in its order and delivery report published early October, disclosed that it had booked 235 orders from customers, including 85 from an undisclosed buyer on September 5. This was likely followed by two more orders in October.
These 100 new aircraft are in addition to the firm orders of 470 aircraft that Air India had placed with Airbus and Boeing last year, of which it has taken the delivery of 6 A350s and 35 B737-8s leaving it with 529 deliveries.
The latest order takes the total number of aircraft that Air India has ordered with Airbus over the past two years to 350. Its Airbus order last year of 250 planes included 40 A350 and 210 A320 Family aircraft. The 220 Boeing planes orders in 2023 included 190 737 MAXs, 20 787 Dreamliners and 10 777X jets.
The airline didn’t reveal the delivery timeline for the 100 new planes. It CEO Campbell Wilson recently said that the airline expected slower deliveries in 2025, and would grow its fleet by a third to 400 aircraft till 2027.
Airbus has a backlog of 8,769 aircraft and Boeing had a backlog of 6,259 planes in March. According to an analysis by CAPA based on 2023 delivery rates, the global order backlog was equivalent of 12 years of production.
Published – December 09, 2024 05:35 pm IST