Limits in the sky

IndiGo and AI's giant purchases raise questions for Indian aviation

Low-cost Indian airline IndiGo has announced the largest ever single order for aeroplanes by an entity, saying that it will purchase 500 narrow-body jets from Europe’s Airbus. These planes, which are all likely to be from the Airbus A320neo family, add to the 830 A320s and A321s that IndiGo has already purchased or ordered from Airbus. Many of these previous orders are yet to be delivered, in fact, including almost 70 A321XLRs, which IndiGo will likely use for longer-haul international sectors. Earlier this year, Air India too put in a mammoth plane order for 470 aircraft, but, unlike IndiGo, the