Air India is buying 85 Airbus planes and may add Boeing planes, sources told Reuters

By Tim Hepher and Aditi Shah

PARIS/DELHI (Reuters) – Air India continues a dramatic turnaround by placing a new order for 85 Airbus jets and may buy more Boeing (NYSE: ) jets on top of a historic order for European and American jets last year, they said industry sources. .

The Airbus order came in a routine industry update as the national carrier mourned the death of former chairman of parent Tata Group, business and aviation pioneer Ratan Tata.

Airbus announced late Wednesday that an unnamed customer had placed an order for 75 A320 family aircraft and 10 A350 long-haul aircraft.

Three sources said Air India was the airline behind the order. Two of the sources said Air India is also in talks for a potential refueling order from Boeing.

Air India did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Airbus deal, first reported by Bloomberg News.

Airbus, whose routine monthly bulletin was published shortly before Tata announced the death of its former chairman at the age of 86, declined to comment on any discussions with customers.

Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ratan Tata took over from Air India’s former chairman and founder of the Tata conglomerate, JRD Tata, in 1991 and served as chairman for over 20 years.

The trained pilot was involved in the development of Vistara, a joint venture with Singapore Airlines (OTC:) and AirAsia India. After his retirement, the Tata Group again took ownership of Air India after nearly 70 years of public control.

“While of course considerable effort will be required to rebuild Air India, we hope it will provide a very strong market opportunity for the Tata Group’s presence in the aviation industry,” Ratan Tata said at X in 2021.

Air India is now in the midst of a multi-billion dollar revamp to restore a once prestigious brand.

Last year, it agreed to buy 470 planes as part of a turnaround project under its founder Tata Group, which regains control in 2022 after decades of public ownership.

The order, the largest at the time by a single airline, was split between 250 planes from Airbus and 220 from Boeing, with neither planemaker having the capacity to sweep the entire order.

Chief Commercial and Transformation Officer Nipun Aggarwal, who led the secret negotiations in London, was later quoted as saying that Air India had also negotiated a total of 370 options and purchase rights from Airbus and Boeing, in addition to the order main.

Air India said last year it had options for 70 Boeing jets, but did not publish a breakdown for Airbus.