Transport

Record Airbus order for IndiGo

India’s biggest airline will buy as many as 250 Airbus Group NV A320neo single- aisle jets

An employee works at the A320 family final assembly line of Airbus factory in Tianjin, China. The French airplane manufacturer now has a backlog for more than 4,100 A320neo planes, following a record order by Indian airline IndiGo. (Photograph: Damir Sagolj/Reuters)

Mon Aug 17 2015 - 08:59

IndiGo, India's biggest airline, firmed up an order to buy as many as 250 Airbus Group NV A320neo single- aisle jets, further strengthening the French planemaker's lead over Boeing in the country's budget airline market.

The order is Airbus’s biggest by numbers, the planemaker said in an e-mailed statement today.

With IndiGo’s order, Airbus has a backlog for more than 4,100 A320neo planes, the company said in the statement. IndiGo’s move underscores growth plans for the decade-old budget carrier, which has a 38.4 percent share of the local market. The purchase is in line with ambitious targets of other Asian budget carriers, who are expanding to serve a burgeoning middle class in a fast-growing aviation market.

In January 2011 IndiGo ordered 180 planes worth $15 billion from Airbus, at the time the biggest order in commercial aviation history, as it builds toward its goal of a thousand-jet fleet. The carrier has taken delivery of more than 100 planes from that order so far.

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Bloomberg

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