Air India’s order for record 470 aircraft from Airbus, Boeing will be nearly $70bn: CEO

While addressing a virtual conference on Monday, the CEO also said that the process of integration of Vistara with Air India is underway and is now awaiting approval from regulatory bodies.

New Delhi: Air India CEO Campbell Wilson on Monday said that the flag carrier’s order for a record 470 aircraft from Airbus and Boeing will be worth nearly $70 billion.

While addressing a virtual conference on Monday, the CEO also said that the process of integration of Vistara with Air India is underway and is now awaiting approval from regulatory bodies.

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Wilson informed that the airline plans to fund the order with a combination of many resources, including internal cash flow, shareholder equity and sale-and-leaseback of aircraft.

New aircraft will start entering the fleet from the end of this year through the end of the decade, to both transform the fleet and power significant network and capacity expansion, Wilson said.

He said that Air India has enormous potential and efforts are on to make the group a significant international player.

Currently in the first phase, the Air India and Vistara merger will move to the second phase to get DGCA approval for merger following CCI nod.

The CEO said that there are three steps to that process. One of competition clearance, the second is DGCA’s regulatory aviation perspective and the third is the merger of the two companies.

“We are in the process of first phase seeking competition clearance,” he added.