Air India announces large aircraft orderss

On 14 February 2023, Air India announced one of the largest orders for new aircraft ever, by signing Letters of Intent (LoI) with Airbus and Boeing for hundreds of planes. The orders are so large that both the French and US President made a video appearance during the press conference that the airline had organized.

With Boeing, the Tata-owned airline is ordering a total of 190 B737MAXs, which will be a mix of -8s and -10s, 20 B787-9s, and ten B777-9s. Air India also secured options for 50 additional MAXs and 20 more B787-9s.

Airbus got a LoI for 140 A320neos, 70 A321neos, six A350-900s, and 34 A350-1000s. According to the manufacturer, Air India is also going to lease 25 additional A320neos as these will have earlier delivery slots than the newly ordered ones, which are expected to be able to be delivered near the end of this decade. The six A350-900s are scheduled to start arriving in the airline's fleet later this year as they are aircraft that were originally destined for Aeroflot. The airline also secured options on another ten A350-1000s.

This large order has been in the works for months and is part of Tata's plan to revamp Air India and making it one of the leading Asian airlines. The plan will see the mergers of Vistara into Air India and AirAsia India into Air India Express in the coming years. It's currently unclear if part of these orders are also destined for Air India Express.

Today, Air India is operating a fleet of eighteen Airbus A319s, nine A320s, 27 A321neos, fourteen A321s, five Boeing B777-200LRs, thirteen B777-300ERs, and 27 B787-8s. Air India Express is operating a fleet of 26 B737-800s, AirAsia India 23 A320s and five A320neos and Vistara a fleet of 42 A320neos, six A321neos, two B737-800s, and three B787-9s.

Illustrations by Airbus and Boeing.