The Indian airline “Air India” on Tuesday signed a letter of intent to buy 250 Airbus aircraft to meet the expected growth of the huge Indian market. It is expected that this contract will quickly be associated with a similar contract with Boeing, according to press information.
Airbus officials and the Tata Group that owns the company announced the agreement during a video-conference ceremony, attended by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron, on the occasion of the AeroIndia exhibition in Bangalore.
The Indian national carrier, which was privatized last year, has ordered 210 A320neos and 40 A350 superjumbos, which for the European planemaker means several months of production.
The amount of the deal, which took nearly two years to negotiate, was not disclosed, but the latest price Airbus published in 2018 – before discounting – puts its value at more than $36 billion.
The LOI, which will turn into a firm order with down payments to be made soon, includes “a plethora of options” for additional aircraft as Air India develops into a “world-class airline”, according to Shri N. Chandrasekaran, Chairman of the Tata Group, which owns it.
“Our ambition for our country is to produce commercial aircraft there in the future,” said the head of the Tata Group. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “This important agreement testifies not only to the steady deepening of relations between India and France, but also to India’s successes and prospects in the civil aviation sector.”
Airbus has set up an engineering center in India and gets certain aircraft components from Indian suppliers, said its president Guillaume Faury, who said: “India is witnessing the dawn of a revolution in international air transport.”
