Ashish Ranjan
As part of an effort to grow its fleet and business, Air India, which is owned by the Tata Group, has committed to purchasing 250 planes from Airbus, including 40 wide-body aircraft.Air India has not ordered any new planes in more than 17 years, making this the very first time they have done so. It is also the first order that the airline has placed since the Tata Group took ownership of the company.
N Chandrasekaran, chairman of Tata Sons, made the announcement on Tuesday that Air India had signed a letter of intent to purchase 250 aircraft from Airbus. It will consist of 210 narrow-body aircraft in addition to the 40 wide-body A350 jets.
Chandrasekaran stated that the wide-body planes will be utilised for ultra-long distance flights during a virtual event that was attended by a number of world leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron, amongst others.
The duration of a flight that is considered to be an ultra-long distance flight is often greater than or equal to sixteen hours.
Since the Tata Group took over the government’s loss-making Air India in January 2022, a variety of steps have been taken to bring the airline back from the brink of bankruptcy.
Air India, which was formerly owned by the Indian government, purchased brand new planes more than 17 years ago.The most recent order placed by the airline was for 111 planes, with 68 being purchased from Boeing and 43 being purchased from Airbus. The total value of this transaction was 10.8 billion US dollars. 2005 was the year that the order was placed.
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On January 27, the Tata Group celebrated the one-year anniversary of its takeover of Air India by announcing that it had “finalised a historic order of new aircraft to propel future expansion.” Air India made this announcement at the same time.
The airline has put in place a roadmap under Vihaan.AI for transformation over the next five years and has taken a variety of measures, including committing USD 400 million to refurbish the interiors of its entire wide-body fleet of aircraft. This transformation will take place over the next five years.
