Budget airline IndiGo said on Monday that it has finalised a pact with global aerospace major Airbus for the purchase of 250 A320neo aircraft. The deal is expected to be worth a little over $25 billion.
"We have firmed up the order for the 250 A320neo by entering into the purchase agreement. This follows the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which we had entered with Airbus earlier," IndiGo president Aditya Ghosh told IANS.
According to Ghosh, the order reaffirms the airline's commitment to the long-term development of affordable air transportation in India and overseas.
"India is one of the largest markets in the world, however it has one of the lowest aircraft penetration. We foresee a robust demand in India and by placing this order, we are clearly charting out our growth strategy for the coming years," Ghosh added.
The purchase agreement was signed on the 69th Independence Day on August 15, 2015.
IndiGo, which is the largest individual airline in India in terms of domestic market share, had placed an order for 100 A320s in 2005 and 180 A320neo in 2011. With Monday's announcement, IndiGo has placed a total order of 530 A320 family aircraft.
"It fills us with pride that IndiGo, India's largest airline and one of the early launch customers for the A320neo, is coming back for more of our benchmark aircraft," John Leahy, chief operating officer customers of Airbus, said in a statement.
The Neo has many innovations, including latest generation engines and large Sharklet wing-tip devices to deliver 15 percent in fuel savings, the statement said. This is equivalent to a reduction of 5,000 tonnes of CO2 per aircraft per year.
Currently, the airline operates 97 A320 aircraft. As of April 30, 2015, the carrier offered 593 daily flights connecting 33 domestic airports. It also operates to five ovserseas destinations--Bangkok, Dubai, Kathmandu, Muscat and Singapore.
The airline had a market share of 33.8 percent of domestic passenger volume for financial year 2014-15.
The A320 family is said to be the world's best-selling single-aisle aircraft with over 11,800 orders to date and more than 6,600 aircraft delivered so far to 400 customers and operators worldwide.
