InterGlobe Aviation co-founder and Airbus and IndiGo chiefs after signing record order at Paris Air Show
Indian carrier IndiGo has placed a record order for 500 Airbus A320 aircraft – the largest single purchase agreement by any airline in the history of commercial aviation.
The deal, announced on the first day of the Paris Air Show, is worth approximately $55 billion before any bulk order discounts.
IndiGo already has an order book of 1,330 aircraft with Airbus.
This translates into a steady stream of deliveries planned between 2030 and 2035.
The new supplies will help budget carrier IndiGo reduce operating costs and improve fuel efficiency, the company said.
India is a booming aviation market, with some analysts saying it is on track to replace China as the next growth frontier for the aerospace industry.
The country is expected to be the fastest-growing G20 economy in the next few years and has seen a significant increase in the number of travelers for the first time since the pandemic.
And there’s still a lot of room for growth. It is estimated that less than 5% of the country’s 1.4 billion people have ever traveled by air, and air traffic in India is growing significantly as disposable incomes rise.
In February, India’s Tata Group announced an order for 250 Airbus aircraft, while earlier this year IndiGo’s rival Air India made waves across the industry by placing its own order for 470 aircraft from Airbus and Boeing.
This latest deal shows that confidence is returning to the airline industry in the wake of the pandemic – and this order from the low-cost carrier is an expression of ambition from one of the world’s fastest growing airlines.
Ryanair and Saudi start-up Riyadh Air have also recently placed large aircraft orders. But while airlines now appear willing to invest in new planes, manufacturers are struggling to build them fast enough as supply chains remain disrupted by the effects of the Covid shutdown.
While this may be the most dramatic order yet seen at the Paris Airshow, it is unlikely to be the last.
The aircraft market ground to a halt during the pandemic, but carriers are now making up for lost time, renewing their fleets and in some cases expanding aggressively.