Indian airline IndiGo orders 30 Airbus A350 widebody planes

Indian airline IndiGo said on Sunday it had signed an order for 30 more Airbus A350-900s, bringing its shopping list for the widebody aircraft from the European aircraft manufacturer to 60.

“We are placing a firm order for 30 Airbus A350-900s,” said Pieter Elbers, the CEO of IndiGo, a company founded in 2006 and already behind the largest contract by volume in the history of civil aviation -- 500 Airbus single-aisle aircraft by 2023.

The Indian low-cost carrier, the country’s biggest by market share, is positioning itself as a significant player in the long-haul market.

“This strategic move will enable IndiGo to spread its wings further and expand its long-haul international network”, the company said in a statement.

“This is yet another step in defining the airline’s long-term plans of international expansion”.

The A350 planes, with ranges of up to 15,000 kilometres (9,300 miles), will allow it to further expand its network.

Overall, IndiGo has placed orders for around 1,000 aircraft from the A320 family, Airbus’s most successful model and rival of the Boeing 737 MAX, which has endured multiple setbacks after a series of safety scares.

Willie Walsh, director general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which began its annual industry conference in New Delhi on Sunday, said “the development of India’s air connectivity in recent years has been nothing short of phenomenal”.

Indian domestic air growth is “running at over 10 percent” per year, Walsh said, ahead of the conference.

The growth of its economy has made India and its 1.4 billion people the world’s fourth-largest air market -- domestic and international -- with IATA projecting it will become the third biggest within the decade.

Last year, India’s domestic air passenger traffic reached a “historic milestone, surpassing 500,000 passengers in a single day”, according to India’s Ministry of Civil Aviation.

Railways remain hugely popular but travelling by trains crisscrossing a country about three-quarters the area of the European Union is often slow and chaotic.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is slated to address IATA delegates on Monday, has made the development of the air sector a priority since coming to power in 2014.

Separately, the International Air Transport Association said on Sunday it expects the amount of sustainable aviation fuel produced to double in 2025 to reach 2 million tonnes, representing 0.7% of airlines’ fuel consumption.

Influential industry body IATA has increasingly been warning that airlines will struggle to meet their sustainability goals, and has described the production of SAF - which is more expensive than conventional jet fuel - as disappointingly slow.

Agencies