IndiGo – India’s largest carrier has “agreed” to place a firm order for 30 A350-900 aircraft with options of 70 more. Deliveries are expected to start in 2027 and comes within an year of the airline placing a record order of 500 A320 family aircraft at the Paris Air show in 2023. The aircraft will be powered by Rolls Royce’s Trent XWB engine.
Currently, IndiGo operates over 350 aircraft and the outstanding orderbook of A320 Family aircraft stands at almost 1,000 aircraft which are yet to be delivered well into the next decade. This IndiGo order-book comprises a mix of A320NEO, A321NEO and A321XLR aircraft.
This new order will bring the strategic relationship between IndiGo and Airbus to an unprecedented level in terms of depth, breadth, and size. For the relationship between IndiGo and Rolls Royce, this marks the beginning of a new, long and fruitful relationship.
The exact configuration of the aircraft will be decided at a later stage. In addition to the 30 Firm A350-900 order, IndiGo has Purchase Rights for an additional 70 Airbus A350 Family aircraft, at its discretion, for possible future needs under certain conditions.
In the calendar year 2023 and Financial year 2024, IndiGo welcomed 100 million customers on board its flights. IndiGo is amongst the fastest growing airlines in the world, and this order will allow it to strengthen its growth trajectory.
This milestone was celebrated on April 25th in Gurgaon at InterGlobe’s Corporate Headquarters by Mr. Pieter Elbers, IndiGo’s CEO, Mr. Benoît de Saint-Exupéry, Airbus’ Executive Vice President of Commercial Aircraft and Mr. Ewen McDonald, Rolls Royce’s Chief Customer Officer – Civil Aerospace, and in the presence of Dr. V. Sumantran, Chairman of the Board of IndiGo and Mr. Christian Scherer, Airbus’ CEO of Commercial Aircraft.
Later in the data, Airbus released a statement confirming that IndiGo has agreed to place an order for 30 A350-900 aircraft. It remains to be seen when the order will be actually signed and IndiGo and Airbus could do the honours at Farnborough airshow in July as it is the only major airshow this year.
This is a major milestone for the airline as well as Indian aviation and will help the ecosystem overall. Air India after its order has set up a training academy amongst others which is helping the industry grow beyond fleet and passenger numbers. IndiGo’s foray into widebody means a lot more.
Do watch this space for more later
You can now order Network Thoughts baggage tags and/or book marks!
Follow NetworkThoughts on Twitter, Facebook, Telegram and YouTube.
For advertising opportunities, get in touch via the Contact us page