In a landmark agreement between Air India and Airbus underlining the deepening relationship between India and France as well as the successes and ambitions of India’s civil aviation industry, the Tata Group owned Air India has placed an order to buy 250 aircraft from France’s Airbus.
The order will include 40 wide-body A350 planes and 210 narrow-body aircraft. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has welcomed the agreement between Air India and Airbus as “an important milestone for the Indo-French Strategic Partnership” during a virtual meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron. The Tata Group has also placed an order to buy 220 Boeing jets, which as per a White House statement from President Joe Biden, is a “historic agreement which also reflects the strength of the US-India economic partnership”.
Inviting global aviation companies present in India to take full advantage of the opportunities offered by the country, Modi recalled that a few months ago, in October 2022, he had attended the foundation stone laying ceremony of the Defence Transport Aircraft Project in Vadodara. “Tata and Airbus also have a partnership in this project being built with an investment of 2.5 billion Euros. I am also happy to know that French company Safran is setting up the largest MRO facility in India to service aircraft engines. India will soon become the third largest market in the aviation sector in the world,” Modi said during the virtual event al attended by Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran.
The acquisition of 250 Airbus planes is also an important step by the Tata Group to revive its ageing fleet along with the various measures that the salt to aviation conglomerate has been taking to restore the operational and financial viability of the carrier since acquiring the loss-making Air India from the Government in January 2022.
The A350 Airbus aircraft’s engines are exclusively powered by Rolls-Royce XWB engines which are assembled and tested in Derby. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch have thus welcomed the deal for Airbus and Rolls-Royce to provide new aircraft for Air India, which is worth billions of pounds to the UK. The wings will be designed in Filton, and assembled in Broughton – which is expected to bring an additional 450 manufacturing jobs and more than £100m of investment to Wales. “India is a major economic power, projected to be the world’s third largest economy with a quarter of a billion middle class consumers by 2050. We are currently negotiating a free trade agreement that would boost our £29.6 billion trading relationship,” Sunak said in a statement from the British High Commission.
The development also comes at a time when the number of aircrafts needed in India in the next 15 years is expected to cross 2000. The order is expected to help in meeting this growing demand. Thus looking forward, strengthening the civil aviation sector has emerged as an integral part of India’s infrastructure development strategy with the last eight years witnessing a significant increase in the number of airports in India from 74 to 147 and the regional connectivity scheme (UDAN) bringing together remote parts of the country via air connectivity.
