IndiGo, the biggest airline in India, has revealed that it will purchase 500 aircraft from Airbus, setting a new milestone in the annals of aviation history. This pact has surpassed the 470-aircraft contract that Air India only recently inked, and it has sparked a competition to leverage India’s expanding population of people who fly and its large expatriate community.
In the presence of the Chairman of the Board of IndiGo, V. Sumantran, CEO of IndiGo, Pieter Elbers, CEO of Airbus, Guillaume Faury, and Airbus’ Chief Commercial Officer and Head of International, Christian Scherer, the agreement was signed on June 19 at the Paris Air Show.
According to a statement released by Airbus, the order for 500 aircraft belonging to the A320 family establishes a new “record for the biggest single purchase agreement in the history of commercial aviation.”
“The latest agreement takes the total number of Airbus aircraft on order by IndiGo to 1,330, establishing its position as the world’s biggest A320 Family customer,” added the statement from Airbus.
“It is difficult to overstate the significance of IndiGo’s new historic order for 500 Airbus A320 Family aircraft. An order book now of almost 1000 aircraft well into the next decade, enables IndiGo to fulfill its mission to continue to boost economic growth, social cohesion and mobility in India,” Airbus quoted IndiGo chief Pieter Elbers as saying.
“This will provide IndiGo a further steady stream of deliveries between 2030 and 2035. This 500 aircraft order is not only IndiGo’s largest order but also the largest-ever single aircraft purchase by any airline with Airbus,” a statement from IndiGo said.
Air India had reached a contract with Boeing in February to purchase 470 aircraft at a cost of $70 billion. The Tata Group acquired Air India in February, which led to this agreement. Campbell Wilson, who was the company’s chief executive officer at the time, said that the move was intended to “transform the fleet and power significant network and capacity expansion.”
IndiGo is now operating over 1,800 flights per day with a fleet of over 300 aircraft, connecting 78 domestic destinations as well as over 20 foreign destinations. Additionally, it has orders that have not yet been fulfilled, bringing the total number of ships in its fleet up to 480 at the present time.
