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Air India has leased a fleet of six Airbus A320 neo aircraft from CDB Aviation, a wholly-owned Irish subsidiary of China Development Bank Financial Leasing Co Limited, the latter said in a statement on Wednesday.
“Our commercial team is delighted to have worked closely with Air India to help solve their fleet requirements with these new Airbus narrowbody aircraft from our order book,” commented Ryan Barrett, CDB Aviation’s Head of Asia Pacific. “These fuel-efficient, new generation aircraft are well suited to support Air India’s fleet revitalisation initiatives, positioning the airline for sustained growth and profitability.’’
CDB Aviation is among the first aircraft leasing companies to secure the placement of Air India’s additional A320neo aircraft under the recently announced multi-stage transformation plan since the purchase of the airline by Tata group, which aims to increase the carrier’s fleet and help it boost both domestic and international operations. The aircraft will be delivered in the second half of 2023.
Commenting on the agreement, Nipun Aggarwal, Chief Commercial Officer of Air India, said: “This is an important agreement, which will help us to strengthen our fleet with state-of-the-art aircraft. This will boost our connectivity, especially on the short and medium-haul routes, and is an important step ahead in our transformation journey.”
“India is an increasingly important region for CDB Aviation, being the second largest Asia Pacific market for new aircraft deliveries, with nearly 1,000 Boeing and Airbus jets in its orderbook,” explained Peter Goodman, CDB Aviation’s Chief Commercial Officer. “Our commercial team remains steadfast in its outreach efforts across Asia Pacific, leveraging our platform’s resources and scale to support the region’s airlines in restoring their networks and growing their fleets.”
Last month, Air India said it is looking at a 30 per cent market share in international operations over the next five years as it taps into new routes, ramps up fleet and brings in a host of changes to its passenger services, its CEO Campbell Wilson said. The airline had earlier announced plans of ramping up domestic market share also to 30 per cent.
The airline will lease five wide-bodied aircraft to its fleet by end-December, primarily to ramp-up international operations. Additionally, trebling of the fleet, across narrow- and wide-bodied aircraft, will happen in a five-year period.
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