 "Largest Indian order: Indigo likely to place an order for 500 planes today")
India's largest airline Indigo is likely to place the largest order for aircraft in the history of the country's aviation today. The airline board is expected to approve an order of 500 Airbus A320 Neo family aircraft on Monday, The Economic Times (ET) reported. This family consists of A320Neo, A321Neo and A321 XLR aircraft.
The value of the order, at the list price of these aircraft, will be around $500 billion, but the actual value is expected to be smaller as large orders enjoy heavy discounts.
The order will be bigger than Air India's order of 470 aircraft from Airbus and Boeing placed in March. The report added that Indigo also has a pending delivery of 477 aircraft from the A320 family by 2030.
"The airline wants to ensure delivery slots so that fleet size remains steady. It will retire around 100 aircraft by 2030 and needs fresh planes to maintain the targeted fleet size of over 700 in the coming decade," a person aware of the development told ET.
Indigo accounts for around 60 per cent of India's domestic aviation market share.
Of the 500 planes in the order, 300 are expected to be A321Neo and A321 XLR aircraft. These planes can operate flights for up to eight hours and will be an important part of the airline's plan to expand in Europe.
A person privy to the developments said that Boeing had also made a strong pitch to the airline for its 737 Max aircraft, but Indigo is likely to go with A320Neo to ensure fleet commonality. This is among the most important factors in the airline maintaining low unit costs.
The airline is now in direct competition with Tata Group-owned Air India, which is also aggressively working on improving its services and modernising its fleet.