New Delhi: IndiGo announced Thursday it has ordered 30 Airbus A350-900 aircraft, marking the Indian carrier’s entry into wide-body aircraft space, a move that will enable it to introduce long-haul international flights.
The airline said in a statement: “IndiGo agreed to place an order for 30 Firm A350-900 aircraft, which will enable IndiGo to spread its wings further and expand its network. From the various Indian metros, IndiGo will be able to connect to the world. The aircraft will be powered by Rolls Royce’s Trent XWB engine.”
It added that the exact configuration of the aircraft would be decided at a later stage, and deliveries were expected to start from 2027. In addition to the 30-plane order, IndiGo has purchase rights for an additional 70 Airbus A350 Family aircraft, for possible future needs under certain conditions, it said.
The fresh purchase follows the airline’s order for 500 Airbus aircraft last June — the largest ever, single aircraft order by any airline. It surpassed Air India’s order of 470 aircraft placed in February 2023.
Confirming the order, Airbus in a statement said this would help expand IndiGo’s international network to long-haul destinations.
Benoît de Saint-Exupéry, Airbus EVP sales, Commercial Aircraft, said, “This is an exciting new chapter in our close partnership with IndiGo…With the A350 selection, IndiGo is now embarking on further opening the world to India.”
Rolls-Royce in a statement said IndiGo had agreed to place an order for 60 Trent XWB-84 engines. This is the first ever agreement for Rolls-Royce with IndiGo.
As part of the deal, the health and maintenance of the engines will be covered by Rolls-Royce’s comprehensive TotalCare service, the company added.
“The new order will power the airline’s expansion plans, particularly its growing footprint on international routes,” the company said in a statement.
Ewen McDonald, chief customer officer, Rolls-Royce, said, “This substantial order from IndiGo for our Trent XWB-84 engines is a great win for Rolls-Royce…India is an important market for Rolls-Royce. The future promises to be exciting,with significant infrastructure developments and further growth expected in air travel.”
Currently, IndiGo operates over 350 aircraft and the outstanding order book comprising A320NEO, A321NEO and A321XLR aircraft stands at nearly 1,000 planes that will be delivered well into the next decade.
While the deliveries from the latest order are expected to start from 2027, the deliveries from the 500-aircraft batch will start from 2030 onwards. According to a March 2024 investor presentation, the company aims to have a fleet of 600 aircraft by 2030.
In a statement, Pieter Elbers, CEO of IndiGo, said, “For IndiGo, after successfully pioneering the Indian skies with an unprecedented journey, its fleet of 30 Airbus A350-900 aircraft will allow IndiGo to embark on its next phase of becoming one of the leading global aviation players… This reaffirms IndiGo’s belief in, and commitment to, the growth of India, and in our strategic partnership with Airbus.”
In the past year, over 30 percent of all plane deals globally were placed by Indian carriers with 1,120 new aircraft. This was a result of orders placed cumulatively by three Indian airlines — Air India, IndiGo and Akasa, with the two major manufacturers Boeing and Airbus.
The three carriers collectively have an order book of about 1,609 aircraft, according to data sourced from the two manufacturers.
The Indigo investor presentation noted that the airline — which is currently the market leader in India — said over 1,900 aircraft were on order for India against about 13,000 for the rest of the world.
For Air India, the only other airline with wide-body planes in its fleet, the order book for new aircraft currently is estimated to be around 448 aircraft — 245 aircraft with European manufacturer Airbus, and 203 with America’s Boeing.
Last February, the company had announced plans to purchase 470 new planes, including 250 aircraft from Airbus and 220 from Boeing. Air India CEO had said the airline was expected to take delivery of a new aircraft every six days on average till the end of 2024.
According to official data, Air India had a fleet of 124 aircraft as of December 2023.
The nearly two-year old Akasa Air placed an order of 150 Boeing 737 Maxs in January this year, taking the airline’s total order size with Boeing to 226. The airline said at that time it operated a fleet of 22 Boeing 737 Max aircraft and would receive deliveries of a total of 204 planes over the course of eight years. According to data available with Boeing, Akasa’s order book stood at 202 aircraft.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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