Air India is likely to be Airbus’ first major widebody customer in India, with a big
A350 deal reportedly in the pipeline. The Tata-owned carrier is wasting no time in reorganizing
its fleet and management, not even a year into its journey as a private carrier.
In today's video, we are going to show you the “NEWS BIG A350 ORDER” So without
any further ado, let’s begin.
Tata Group, which had bought state-run carrier Air India in a $2.4 billion equity and debt
deal earlier in 2022, is planning an excessive overhaul of the carrier and Air India Express.
According to an ANI report, Tata Group is planning to induct six Boeing 777-200 aircraft
and 25 Airbus A320 Neos by the first quarter of next year. Air India is looking to expand
its widebody fleet with several Airbus A350 aircraft as early as the first quarter of
2023.
According to people familiar with the matter, Air India is looking to order around 20 A350s
worth more than $6 billion based on list prices. But the actual price is likely to be less
due to industry discounts given on big orders like these.
While airlines usually join a queue for delivery slots for popular airplanes, Air India seems
to have gotten lucky with its timing. Reportedly, AI’s new A350s will likely come from the
several undelivered planes for the Russian carrier Aeroflot due to the sanctions issued
earlier this year. Some could also come from Qatar Airways planes, which the airline is
not taking due to the very public conflict over paint issues. Simple Flying explored
this possibility in detail last month.
This may not be the airline’s only order with Airbus, as Business Standard reports
that talks are ongoing about a 100+ order for the single-aisle A321neo aircraft for
the carrier’s domestic fleet development.
Air India has already notified its senior pilots about the development and is asking
for their response on whether they’d like to train for the new aircraft. The Business
Standard reviewed the memo sent to the pilots, which said,
“The airline already operates a fleet of the A320 family of aircraft and is likely
to train some of those pilots for the A350, given the cockpit commonality of the airplanes.”
The Tatas are wasting no time in finalizing the deal, as some of its top executives, including
Chief Financial Officer Saurabh Agrawal and Air India’s Chief Commercial officer Nipun
Aggarwal, are in Hamburg discussing the seat layouts and interiors of the jets.
While it was expected that Air india would likely add more aircraft following its privatization,
Airbus’ candidature gathered momentum only in the previous few months following its A350
display tour in the Indian subcontinent.
The European planemaker has pretty much dominated the narrowbody market in India, but it could
never establish a prominent presence in the widebody segment in the country. Airbus has
also predicted that India will need more than 2,200 airplanes by 2040, of which more than
400 will be widebody airplanes.
The aircraft manufacturer seems to have also taken advantage of the current widebody gap
in Air India’s fleet, which is looking for more fuel-efficient airplanes to fly to the
US. It currently flies Boeing 777s to the US, which consumes more fuel compared to the
newer generation twin-engine jets. Air india’s Boeing 787-8s, although more economical, do
not have the range to fly non-stop to the US.
But a future deal with Boeing is not entirely off the table either, as the carrier has been
in talks with both airplane manufacturers and could eventually also go for the 787-9s
in the future. A wide-bodied plane like Airbus A350 has a bigger fuel tank that allows it
to travel long distances such as India-US routes. The Tata Group took control of Air
India on January 27 after successfully winning the bid for the airline on October 8 last
year.
Sources on Wednesday said Air India has started asking its senior pilots if they will be interested
in getting the "conversion training" to operate A350 aircraft. Air India's pilots are trained
to operate the wide-bodied aircraft of Boeing. Therefore, they have to undergo "conversion
training" to operate the A350 aircraft of Airbus.
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