The leasing of 25 Airbus narrow-body and five Boeing wide-body aircraft by Air India was announced recently. Since Tata Sons acquired the airline last January, this is the first significant fleet expansion.
There are five Boeing 777-200 LRs, 21 Airbus A320 Neos, and four Airbus A321 Neos among the fleet. These will start operating in late 2022, expanding the airline’s fleet by about 25%.
Between December 2022 and March 2023, the B777-200 LR aircraft will be added to the fleet and used on routes between Mumbai and Bengaluru to the United States of America. Flights from Mumbai to San Francisco and the two international airports in New York–Newark Liberty and John F. Kennedy–will be included in this. San Francisco would also be accessible from Bengaluru three times each week. Additionally, Air India has connections to Chicago and Washington, DC.
Five years after Air India leased 14 A320s, the fleet has expanded. Its most recent order for aircraft was for 111 aircraft in 2006, 68 of which came from Boeing and 43 from Airbus.
Industry observers claimed that the expansion move would meet the airline’s immediate needs until it placed a significant aircraft order for its growth strategy for the following ten years. It would also help the airline deal with the current grounding of 16 narrow-body and 10 wide-body aircraft out of a total of 124 in its fleet due to lack of maintenance.
Ten narrow-body and six wide-body aircraft have reportedly already made a recent return to service following repairs, according to the airline.
Air India has also revealed that it will provide Premium Economy Class on the five B777-200 aircraft, a first for the airline.
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