Airbus to sell 43 passenger jets to Indian for $2.5 billion

Airbus to sell 43 passenger jets to Indian for $2.5 billion

NEW DELHI - Indian (formerly Indian Airlines) on Monday formalized the deal to buy 43 Airbus passenger jets worth $2.5 billion, according to the chief executive of Airbus, Noel Forgeard. The deal, which was in the news for quite sometime now was inked in the presence of the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the French President Jacques Chirac today.

President Chirac is on a state visit to India. The deal to buy A319 and A320 planes was inked by Indian chairman Vishwapati Trivedi and Airbus vice president Kiran Rao at the capital. "It is a big order with a value of over 2.5 bln usd. It is a great achievement," Mr Forgeard told reporters. The deal was being ironed out since 2003 and finally reached its "happy conclusion" here, he added.

Talking about the delivery schedules, Kiran Rao said, "We will deliver the first aircraft in October or November, and then one aircraft per month." The deal only got the governmental nod in September last year. Indian is under the control of the state and had changed its name only in December last year.

The aviation industry in the country is in the consolidation phase especially after the mega deal between Sahara Airways and Jet Airways recently. Budget airlines like Air Deccan, Spice Jet and the Vijay Mallya-owned Kingfisher Airlines have eaten into the passenger manifests of Indian, but it remains the nation's leading carrier.

In the last year, passengers had made 59.54 million trips on Indian. This figure is 22 percent more than what was recorded in the previous financial year. Airbus and Boeing are engaged in a fierce battle to gain control of Asian sales. The market is booming here and Airbus had said that it received 1,055 net orders last year as compared to Boeing's 1,002.