Air India postpones Boeing aircraft orders due to backlog, CEO says: Reuters
Air India is delaying its decision to purchase more Boeing aircraft until the manufacturer resolves its backlog, the airline’s CEO Campbell Wilson told Reuters.
“We don’t want to commit to anything until we have confidence of when it’s going to come,” Wilson explained in an interview with Reuters in London. “And likewise, they [Boeing] don’t want to offer something until they have confidence of when it’s going to come.”
He said that Air India’s aircraft order will take longer to fulfill than originally planned, but that he remained optimistic about the airline’s turnaround plan in the coming years.
“We expect to get them, but do we expect to get them according to timeline? No, we don’t. And I think that every airline would tell you the same thing,” he told Reuters, adding that Air India has been in “constant contact” with the manufacturer.
The Tata Group-owned airline has acknowledged its struggles from not having enough investment while being state-owned. This has led to a big five-years restructuring plan called the Vihaan.AI program, which the airline calls its “transformation roadmap”.
In December 2024, Air India revealed major updates to its international route network as part of this plan. These changes will allow Air India to use its best aircraft for important destinations in Southeast Asia and Europe, in addition to the upgraded A350 and B777 already operating on several routes to the US and UK.
The updates will also improve flight schedules for key international routes connecting North America or Europe with Australia or Southeast Asia via Air India’s hubs in Delhi and Mumbai.
In June 2023, Air India made a significant move by ordering 470 aircraft from Airbus and Boeing as part of its Vihaan.AI program. However, in January 2024, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) imposed a cap on Boeing 737 MAX production to 38 jets per month following an incident in January 2024, when a door plug separated from an Alaska Airlines 737-9 shortly after takeoff. The post Air India postpones Boeing aircraft orders due to backlog, CEO says: Reuters appeared first on AeroTime.
Air India is delaying its decision to purchase more Boeing aircraft until the manufacturer resolves its backlog, the…
The post Air India postpones Boeing aircraft orders due to backlog, CEO says: Reuters appeared first on AeroTime.
