IndiGo Makes Bold Move: Orders 30 Airbus A350s for Long-Haul Routes in India

IndiGo Makes Bold Move: On Thursday, IndiGo, India's largest airline by market share, ordered its first wide-body aircraft as the low-cost carrier intensifies efforts to take over the international travel market from Gulf carriers.

The airline has ordered 30 Airbus A350-900 aircraft and expects deliveries to begin in 2027. In addition, it has the right to purchase an additional 70 Airbus A350 family aircraft.

According to the last catalog rate published in 2018, Airbus' latest deal with IndiGo would be worth more than $9 billion. After typical discounts for bulk orders, industry sources say airplanes are sold for less than half the listing price.

As plane manufacturers struggle to meet output goals, Indian carriers are struggling to keep up with the growth in air traffic in the country post-pandemic.

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According to industry and government data, India's international air traffic is expected to grow from 64 million in 2019 to 160 million by 2030, but the majority of the traffic still comes from foreign carriers like Emirates.

In the last quarter of last year, foreign airlines accounted for 55% of outbound international traffic from India.

For the first time, IndiGo will be able to fly non-stop to destinations in Europe and North America, bypassing the Gulf, as well as as far as Australia to the Far East.

Pieter Elbers, IndiGo's chief executive, said in a statement that the new fleet will enable the airline to become a global player.

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Having a 60% share of India's domestic aviation market, IndiGo plans to expand its international network and double its capacity by the end of the decade.

Currently, IndiGo deploys 27% of its capacity on international routes.

Through its codeshare partnerships with seven airlines, including Turkish Airlines and KLM, the airline recently started flying to destinations in Africa, West Asia, and Southeast Asia.

As one of Airbus's largest customers for narrow-body planes, IndiGo was initially expected to choose rival Boeing's 787 for its long-haul expansion, according to Reuters.

As Bloomberg reported in March, Boeing's production problems and Airbus' marketing counter-offensive may have saved the deal for the European planemaker.

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