Boeing, Airbus in Talks for Jet Order From Air India
Boeing and Airbus are in talks with the new owners of Air India about an order for a raft of new planes, as part of a plan to modernize its fleet, people familiar with the matter said
Tata Sons Pvt., which acquired the debt-laden airline from the Indian government last month, has begun talks with the planemakers and lessors for jets including Airbus A350-900s and Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners, the people told Bloomberg, asking not to be identified.
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The talks are at a preliminary stage, with Tata Sons assessing the right fleet mix and no decisions taken yet on aircraft type or order size, according to the people. The carrier is in discussions for new Airbus or Boeing narrow-body jets that form the mainstay of Air India’s domestic and short-haul operations, as well as wide-body aircraft capable of flying as far as the U.S., the people said.
Modernizing Air India’s fleet is crucial for the Tata Group, which last month won control of the struggling carrier after bidding an enterprise value of 180 billion rupees ($2.4 billion). The airline, once known for its premium services and advertisements that featured Bollywood stars, has lucrative landing and parking slots at almost all major airports around the world. But it faces stiff competition from foreign airlines with non-stop services to India, as well as carriers operating from hubs in the Middle East.
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“In terms of fleet, we know we have work to do,” Natarajan Chandrasekaran, chairman of the Tata Group, told Air India employees earlier this month at an internal company briefing, according to a video reviewed by Bloomberg News. “We will address it with utmost urgency. We’ll upgrade our fleet, we’ll bring modernity in our fleet, we’ll bring a new fleet.”
Air India will increase the number of aircraft it has — both wide-body and narrow-body — and will move to do that with speed in the coming months, Chandrasekaran told staff. Air India’s average fleet age is more than 10 years.
Photo: Steven Byles/Wikipedia
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