Air India fleet expansion: AirLease Corp executive chairman Steven Udvar-Hazy said, “We have this 500-aircraft order coming out of India, which is going to be about 400 narrow-body aircraft, probably a mix of (Airbus) A320neos, A321neos and (Boeing) 737 MAXs, and 100 wide-bodies which will include (Boeing) 787s, 777X, potentially some 777 freighters and (Airbus) A350s.”
Tata Group officially took over cash-strapped Air India in January 2022 and ever since, it has been their mission to make it a world-class airline. As part of its fleet expansion plans, Air India is set to place a big order for about 500 aircraft as the aviation sector recovers from the Covid pandemic.
As a result of this recovery, there is now more momentum for large orders from airlines who have sort of sat back and watched the movie, and now they’re seeing there’s going to be a positive trend, AirLease Corp executive chairman Steven Udvar-Hazy said at the Airline Economics conference.
This isn’t the first time that Air India has sought to increase its fleet but in December too, Reuters, citing industry sources, had reported that Air India is about to place an order for as many as 500 jetliners from both Boeing and Airbus.
We have this 500-aircraft order coming out of India, which is going to be about 400 narrow-body aircraft, probably a mix of (Airbus) A320neos, A321neos and (Boeing) 737 MAXs, and 100 wide-bodies which will include (Boeing) 787s, 777X, potentially some 777 freighters and (Airbus) A350s,” he added.
Not just Air India, but several international operators are looking at increasing their fleet size following the Covid-19 pandemic. Udvar-Hazy exuded confidence that they expect a number of airlines to place large orders with most of them being for a replacement.
