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Airbus boss Faury with medium-haul model A350-900: letter of intent signed
Photo: Frederic Scheiber/AP
The airline Air India has ordered a total of 470 new passenger jets from Airbus and Boeing in one fell swoop.
Overall, this is the largest aircraft purchase in aviation history.
The world's largest aircraft manufacturer Airbus from Europe was able to secure the largest part of the order with 250 machines.
His battered rival Boeing from the USA has ordered 220 machines, as Air India's parent company Tata Group and the two manufacturers announced on Tuesday.
The most spectacular aircraft order to date came from 2011. At that time, the US airline American Airlines ordered 460 aircraft.
The news was well received on the stock exchange.
Although the deal had leaked out in principle before the weekend, Airbus and Boeing shares were up a good half a percent on Tuesday afternoon.
Airbus is to deliver 210 machines from the A320neo medium-haul jet family and 40 A350 wide-body jets to the Indians, as Tata boss Natarajan Chandrasekaran said in an online briefing with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron.
The companies had signed a corresponding declaration of intent.
Prelude to a series of further orders
The deal with Boeing includes 190 examples of the medium-haul 737 Max jet, 20 long-haul jets of the type 787 "Dreamliner" and 10 wide-bodied aircraft in the modernized 777X variant.
However, development and production of the 777X is currently on hold at Boeing.
Airbus sales manager Scherer was particularly happy that Air India has opted for the wide-body jet A350.
"We have a very large market share in India for medium-haul jets, but not so far for wide-bodied aircraft."
According to the manager, the major order is just the start of many aircraft orders from India.
If the country's middle class grows as strongly in the coming years and travels by air as in China, the country will need 2,500 or 3,000 new airplanes in the next 20 years.
"The time is ripe to make India an international hub," said Airbus boss Guillaume Faury.
Air India wants to win back passengers from Arab airlines Emirates and Qatar Airways.
These have been transporting passengers from India to the USA and Europe for years - via their hubs in Dubai and Doha.
More options secured
Air India was founded as Tata Airlines by the Tata family in the 1930s and was nationalized in the 1950s.
Since the 1990s, it has increasingly suffered from cheap competition.
During the corona crisis around a year ago, Tata bought back the indebted company.
Tata boss Chandrasekaran has prepared for further growth.
At Boeing, he secured Air India purchase rights for a further 50 medium-haul jets of the type 737 Max and a further 20 »Dreamliner«.
Air India has also secured options at Airbus to significantly expand the current order, he said.
Airbus manager Scherer confirmed the existence of such purchase rights, but did not want to give any specific figures.
Airbus is reluctant to give up options, especially since the production of the A320neo has been fully booked for years.
Anyone ordering a medium-haul jet from the Airbus A320neo model family today will have to wait until 2029 for delivery.
Air India should still receive a handful of jets a little earlier.
Airbus wants to publish its financial figures for 2022 this Thursday (February 16).
At this appointment, the management usually also names its goals for the new year – together with a forecast of how many machines the manufacturer will deliver.
mik/dpa-AFX
