Adedokun Waliyu 
IndiGo, India’s top airline by market share, placed an order with Airbus for 30 A350-900 jets, it said on Thursday, its first-ever order for widebody aircraft.
Indian carriers are trying to keep pace with the world’s fastest-growing aviation market, where demand for air travel has surged post-pandemic, even as plane manufacturers struggled to meet output goals.
The drive by IndiGo, which has a 60% share in India’s domestic aviation market, also comes at a time when it aims to double its capacity by the end of the decade and expand its network, especially in international markets.
The new fleet “will allow IndiGo to embark on its next phase of becoming one of the leading global aviation players”, the airline’s chief executive, Pieter Elbers, said in a statement
Airbus no longer publishes prices, but such a deal would be worth more than $9 billion, as per the last catalogue rates published in 2018.
In practice, industry sources say airplanes are sold for less than half the official price after typical discounts for bulk orders.
IndiGo recently launched flights to destinations in Africa, West Asia and Southeast Asia, and is also growing its presence in Europe through its codeshare partnership with seven carriers, including Turkish Airlines and KLM.
The low-cost carrier expects deliveries of the A350s to start from 2027 and said that they would use Rolls Royce’s Trent XWB engines.
IndiGo also has purchase rights for an additional 70 Airbus A350 family aircraft, it said in a statement.
