Indigo, India's largest airline by market share, on June 19 placed an order for 500 Airbus A320 Family aircraft in the largest purchase agreement in aviation history. This historic deal is pegged at $50 billion at list prices and the airline will take delivery of these new aircraft between 2030 and 2035. However, the actual cost of acquisition is expected to be significantly lower as such big deals happen at a substantial discount to list prices.
The current order comprises a mix of A320 neo, A321 neo, and A321 xlr aircraft.
"The engine selection for this order will be done in due course and so will be the exact mix of A320 and A321 aircraft," IndiGo said in a statement.
At the moment IndiGo operates over 300 aircraft and has previous orders totaling 480 aircraft which are expected to be delivered by the end of 2030.
"With this additional firm order of 500 aircraft for 2030-2035, IndiGo’s order book has almost 1,000 aircraft yet to be delivered well into the next decade," the airline said.
With this new order, since its inception in 2006, IndiGo has ordered a massive total of 1,330 aircraft with Airbus.
The historic purchase agreement was signed by Rahul Bhatia, Promoter & Managing Director of IndiGo, Venkataramani Sumantran, Chairman and Non-Executive Independent Director of IndiGo, Pieter Elbers, CEO of IndiGo, Guillaume Faury, Airbus CEO, and Christian Scherer, Airbus Chief Commercial Officer and Head of International, at the Paris Air Show 2023.
“It is difficult to overstate the significance of IndiGo’s new historic order for 500 Airbus A320 Family aircraft. An order book now of almost 1,000 aircraft well into the next decade enables IndiGo to fulfil its mission to continue to boost economic growth, social cohesion and mobility in India,” Pieter Elbers, CEO of IndiGo, said.
The huge order was rumoured in the days leading up to the show and eclipses the record order seen from Tata's Air India in February this year by about 30 planes.
New chapter
“This landmark order marks a new chapter in Airbus and IndiGo’s relationship that is democratising affordable air travel for millions of people in the world’s fastest-growing aviation market,” said Christian Scherer, Chief Commercial Officer and Head of International at Airbus.
With a commanding 61 percent share of the domestic Indian market, IndiGo is likely to reign tall over the Indian aviation market for the foreseeable future.
Currently, IndiGo operates flights to 26 international destinations, serving 75 international city pairs. The airline aims to bolster its international seat share from 23 percent in 2023-24 to 30 percent within the next two years, according to Elbers.
With its fleet of over 300 aircraft, the airline is operating well over 1,800 daily flights connecting 78 domestic destinations.
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