Air India's Fleet Expansion Plan To Give It Extra Wings As part of its revival plans, Air India is close to placing orders of as many as 500 jetliners from Airbus and Boeing, reported Reuters

Air India is close to placing historic orders for as many as 500 jetliners worth tens of billions of dollars from Airbus and Boeing as it carves out a revival plan under the Tata Group conglomerate to rule the sky again, reported Reuters.

In January 2022, The Tata Group announced the completion of the transaction for the purchase of Air India from the Government of India. Since then, the company has been spreading its wings to expand its aviation empire.

"The orders include as many as 400 narrow-body jets and 100 or more wide-bodies including Airbus A350s and Boeing 787s and 777s," the report added. Such a deal could top $100 billion dollars at list prices, including any options, and rank among the biggest by a single airline in volume terms, overshadowing a combined order for 460 Airbus and Boeing jets from American Airlines over a decade ago. Airbus and Boeing declined to comment. Tata Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment, the report quoted.

A week back, Air India announced plans to lease six Boeing B777-300 ER widebody aircraft to further augment its existing fleet. These aircraft are expected to be inducted in the first half of 2023. The decision to lease six aircraft is in addition to the thirty leased earlier this year including twenty one Airbus A320, four Airbus A321 and five Boeing B777-200LR widebody aircraft.

"Growing our network is an essential part of Air India's Vihaan.AI transformational journey and we remain committed to increasing connectivity and frequency of flights both domestically and internationally. These additional aircraft leases will support our near term growth even as we finalize plans to refresh and significantly grow our long-term fleet," said Campbell Wilson, CEO, MD, Air India.