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An Airbus A320 from the Indian airline Indigo – the Group has ordered 500 new ones

Photo: PUNIT PARANJPE / AFP

Airbus, the world's largest aircraft manufacturer, has landed a record order on the first day of the Paris Air Show. The Indian low-cost airline Indigo has ordered 500 aircraft from the A320neo model family. Representatives of both sides signed the deal on Monday at the world's largest air show in Le Bourget. This is the largest single order in the history of aviation, said Airbus sales chief Christian Scherer.

According to Indigo CEO Pieter Elbers, the Indian airline currently operates a fleet of around 300 aircraft. In total, the New Delhi-based aviation company now has almost 1000 aircraft to get from Airbus, 480 of them by the end of the decade. The record order is for firm orders and not purchase options, said Elbers, who led the Dutch airline KLM until 2022. The order includes the standard version A320neo, the long-haul version A321neo and the new long-haul variant A321XLR.

How the deal will be divided among the individual types is still being decided, according to the manager. He still has time for that, because the delivery of the 500 jets is not scheduled to begin until 2030. Both sides did not want to comment on the purchase price. This time, they didn't even refer to list prices, which usually give high discounts. According to the list price, it is a volume of 55 billion dollars (50.3 billion euros), but Airbus has not updated its list prices for a few years.

Indigo was founded in 2005 and has since ordered hundreds of Airbus aircraft several times – most recently 300 in 2019. However, Airbus sales chief Scherer said Monday's order was "just the beginning". It shows the potential of the Indian aviation market.

According to Elbers, Indigo plans to double its own fleet by 2030. He did not want to comment on the fleet plans for the coming decade. However, the current order gives the airline the necessary flexibility in planning. It was only in April that India, with more than 1.4 billion people, replaced China as the world's most populous nation. Indigo's aircraft order creates the opportunity for millions of people in India to fly, said Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury.

jso/dpa/AFP