A350 is centerpiece of Air India's long-haul strategy: Airbus India chief

Remi Maillard says first A350 will be delivered before end of this year; it only takes 11 days to qualify an A320 plane pilot into an A350 pilot

The A350 wide-body plane is the centrepiece of Air India’s strategy for long-haul flights and its delivery will begin this year, Rémi Maillard, president and managing director of Airbus India and South Asia, said on Tuesday.

Air India has placed an estimated $70-billion order with Airbus for 250 planes— 210 A320neo family aircraft (which includes 140 A320neo planes and 70 A321neo planes) and 40 A350 aircraft (which includes 34 A350-1000 aircraft and six A350-900 aircraft).

“It is interesting that Air India has chosen A350 in the 1000 configuration, which is the longer range one, and that makes A350 arguably the