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The
agreement confirms an earlier provisional order by IndiGo for
the 250 narrow-body planes announced in October. Budget airline
IndiGo has now ordered 530 A320 family planes in all from
Airbus, the planemaker said in a statement on Monday.
The latest deal helps extend Airbus's lead against arch-rival
Boeing <BA.N> in orders for the fast-growing upgraded
narrow-body aircraft segment.
IndiGo would start taking delivery of the new Airbus planes from
2018 until 2026, the airline's president, Aditya Ghosh, told
Reuters. As with previous orders, Indigo will perform sale and
leaseback transactions on the majority of the aircraft bought
from Airbus, he said.
The deal makes IndiGo the largest airline customer for the
Airbus A320-family of aircraft. Other large A320 customers
include low-cost carriers such as Malaysia's AirAsia <AIRA.KL>
and Indonesia's Lion Air.
It is also the second-largest order by value for Airbus.
The A320neo is the re-engined and upgraded variant of the A320
family of planes and competes against Boeing's upgraded 737 Max
in the narrow-body market segment.
Boeing has projected that narrow-body aircraft, which are used
on flights of up to around five hours, will account for 70
percent of all planes required over the next 20 years.
Boeing has secured 2,831 orders for its 737 Max plane, according
to data on its website, while Airbus said that it has over 4,100
orders for the A320neo with this order.
Founded in 2006 by travel entrepreneur Rahul Bhatia and Rakesh
Gangwal, a former chief executive of U.S. Airways, IndiGo has
placed a series of aggressive orders for Airbus jets as it tries
to win a bigger share of India's fast-growing aviation market.
India's air travel market is forecast by the International Air
Transport Association to become the third-largest around 2031 as
millions start flying for the first time.
IndiGo flies one in three of India's air travelers. Its owner,
InterGlobe Aviation, filed in June a draft prospectus for an
initial public offering. It had said in the prospectus that the
terms of the 250 aircraft order had expired, raising concerns
about the deal.
(Additional reporting by Leila Abboud in PARIS; Editing by
Andrew Callus and Muralikumar Anantharaman)
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