Boeing rival Airbus nears record order for 500 planes from India’s largest airline, report says

• Airbus is near a deal to sell 500 A320 narrow-body planes to IndiGo, Reuters reported.
• That would make it the largest order ever by volume, topping Air India’s 470-plane deal in February.
• Airbus and archrival Boeing are also in talks to sell 25 wide-body jets to IndiGo, Reuters said.

Boeing rival Airbus is near a deal to sell 500 planes from the A320 narrow-body family of jets to India’s largest airline, IndiGo, Reuters reported on Sunday.

An order that size would make it the largest ever by volume, topping Air India’s 470-plane deal in February.

The deal isn’t finalized, but the European aerospace giant is the current frontrunner amid an industry gathering in Istanbul, sources told Reuters.

Meanwhile, Airbus and Boeing are also in talks to sell 25 wide-body jets to IndiGo, the report added.

Airbus declined to comment on the report when contacted by Insider. Representatives for IndiGo didn’t immediately respond to Insider’s requests for comment. Both companies declined to comment to Reuters.

Budget carrier IndiGo is already an exclusive buyer of narrow-body jets from Airbus, but was also considering Boeing 737 Max for its potentially historic order, Reuters said in March.

However, the airline may stick with Airbus to gain more economies of scale as it already has more than 800 A320 planes on order, the report added.

That’s in contrast with Air India’s massive order, which was split between 220 Boeing planes and 250 Airbus planes.

India is the world’s fastest growing aviation market and the third largest overall, according to BQ Prime. In February, Boeing predicted that India would see long-term passenger growth of nearly 7% annually through 2041.

That means India will need about 2,210 new airplanes over the next two decades, with single-aisle jets comprising 90% of that, according to Boeing.

“This trend exemplifies India’s commitment to modernizing its fleet with more sustainable and fuel-efficient next-generation airplanes,” said Dave Schulte, Boeing commercial marketing managing director for Asia Pacific, in February.