Air India is looking to order more than 200 new jets from Airbus and Boeing

On the sidelines of the 78th annual general meeting of the International Air Transport Association in Doha, aviation industry sources said Air India is considering buying 200 to 300 new planes.

Tata Group-owned Air India is considering buying more than 200 new planes with 70 per cent of them being narrow-bodied aircraft, aviation industry sources said on Sunday June 19.

While Air India has zeroed in on Airbus’s A350 wide-bodied aircraft for the procurement, the talks with Airbus and Boeing for narrow-bodied aircraft are still on, they said.

A wide-bodied plane like Airbus A350 has a bigger fuel tank that allows it to travel long distances such as the India-US routes.

They said that the decision on which narrow-bodied plane to buy Airbus A320 family aircraft or Boeing’s 737 Max aircraft, is not yet taken.

Air India has not bought a single aircraft since 2006 when it placed orders for purchasing 111 aircraft — 68 from the US-based aircraft manufacturer Boeing and 43 from European aircraft manufacturer Airbus.

The Tata Group took control of Air India on January 27 after successfully winning the bid for the airline on October 8 last year.

As of June 2022, the mainline Air India, excluding fleet of subsidiary – Air India Express, fleet consists of the following aircraft:

Airbus A319-100 21
Airbus A320-200 9
Airbus A320neo 27
Airbus A321-200 15
Boeing 777-200LR 3
Boeing 777-300ER 13
Boeing 787-8 27
Total 115

Air India operates a fleet of Airbus A320ceo family, Airbus A320neo narrowbody aircraft, and widebody fleet is Boeing 777 series and Boeing 787 making a total of 115 aircraft, and 0 on order. outlookindia.com & AirGuideBusiness