IndiGo forays into wide-body space, to buy 30 A350 aircraft

PTI

New Delhi, April 25

Marking its foray into the wide-body segment, the country’s largest airline IndiGo on Thursday announced placing a firm order for 30 A350-900 aircraft and will also have the option to purchase 70 more such aircraft.

Deliveries to begin from 2027

• The low-cost carrier expects the deliveries of wide-body aircraft to begin from 2027. It had also purchased rights for an additional 70 Airbus A350 family aircraft, the company said
• The new aircraft will be powered by Rolls Royce’s Trent XWB engine, which will see the beginning of a relationship between the two firms. As of now, the airline operates over 350 aircraft

Flying for more than 17 years, IndiGo currently has a fleet of more than 350 narrow-body planes and is expanding its presence overseas. The carrier is also operating two wide-body Boeing 777 aircraft leased from Turkish Airlines to Istanbul from Delhi and Mumbai.

The A350-900 planes will be powered by Rolls Royce’s Trent XWB engine and the exact configuration of these aircraft, whose delivery is expected to start from 2027, will be decided later.

In a release, IndiGo said it is entering the “wide-body space with an order for 30 firm Airbus A350-900 aircraft”.

IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers termed it as a “historic moment”. The carrier, which has a domestic market share of more than 60 per cent, also has purchase rights for an additional 70 Airbus A350 family aircraft, “at its discretion, for possible future needs under certain conditions”.

The pricing of the A350-900 aircraft was not available as Airbus has discontinued the practice of publishing the list price of its planes. At present, Air India is the only Indian carrier operating A350. Among the domestic airlines, currently, Air India and Vistara have wide-body jets in their fleets while SpiceJet has leased some wide-body planes. IndiGo’s latest order also comes at a time when efforts are on to make India a global aviation hub.

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