The country's national carrier Air India has inked a $550 million financial agreement with Export-Import Bank of US (Exim Bank) to purchase eight aircraft.
Exim Bank Chairman James H Lambright and NACIL Chairman and Managing Director Raghu Menon signed the pact at the bank's headquarters in Washington. Exim Bank would give guarantee for the amount, which would be provided by Standard Chartered Bank to the national carrier to buy three 777 aircraft and five 737-780 aircraft, Air India said in a statement, adding that the guarantee of the US Exim Bank is in turn guaranteed by the Government of India.
"We greatly value US Exim's contribution in partnering Air India in our project of acquiring 68 aircrafts from the Boeing Company. Induction of these aircraft would be a major step forward in making Air India a truly global airline," Air India Chairman and Managing Director Raghu Menon said.
With this, the total amount of facility raised by Air India for acquisition of 25 Boeing aircraft is $1.75 billion. The remaining 43 aircraft are also proposed to be financed through the support of the US Exim bank, it said.
"The fast growing India market offers enormous opportunities for the US exporters in sectors, including transportation, energy and infrastructure development," US Exim bank Chairman James Lambright said.
Air India, which is officially called the National Aviation Co of India has so far raised over $3 billion to acquire 38 new generation aircraft in its fleet till now, with 73 more to follow in the next few years up to 2012, the statement added.