IndiGo places firm order for Airbus A350s

*Article updated with new featured image of rendering of a Airbus A350 in IndiGo’s livery*

India’s largest airline IndiGo has placed a firm order for Airbus A350s. This comes after multiple rounds of rumours about IndiGo looking to order wide-body aircraft.

It’s happening!

IndiGo has placed a firm order for 30 Airbus A350-900s, with purchase rights for 70 more Airbus A350 family aircraft. This marks the first time that the airline has ordered wide-body aircraft.

Deliveries of these aircraft will begin from 2027. The airline says that the configuration of seats onboard these aircraft will be decided at a later stage. Currently, only Air India operates Airbus A350s in India. IndiGo’s current order book stands at more than 1000 Airbus A320 family aircraft, comprising A320neos, A321neos and A321XLRs. Last year, the airline made headlines by announcing largest ever single aircraft order by any airline for 500 A320 family aircraft.

Long-haul flights

The acquisition of A350s will enable IndiGo to start long-haul flights, with markets like United Kingdom, United States and Australia easily within the range of A350-900s.

Interestingly, IndiGo also has the soon-to-enter service Airbus A321XLR (Extra long range) aircraft on order with deliveries set to begin next year. These jets will enable IndiGo to fly up to 8 hours nonstop.

It will be interesting to see how IndiGo will use a combination of A321XLRs and A350s for international markets. The most probable scenario would be that the A321XLRs will be deployed on routes which have very thin traffic (less passengers) while the A350s will exclusively be used for long-haul flights.

Stay up to date: Sign up for my newsletter to never miss latest Aviation and Travel news.

Business Class?

Many rumours have circulated about IndiGo thinking of introducing a Business Class product on A321XLRs. The airline has neither denied nor accepted this. While we can’t say anything for now, I personally think that IndiGo will definitely have to introduce a Premium Economy or a Business Class product for its A350s, including ovens for hot meals.

IndiGo is already changing its approach and business model by introducing a stream-on-mobile inflight entertainment system on its mobile app starting next month on a trial basis on flights between Delhi and Goa. This can probably be just the beginning of enhancing the passenger experience (I am sure that will not happen for domestic flights apart from the inflight entertainment system) and testing out different things before these A350s come in.

It will be interesting to see IndiGo battle it out with Air India in the international skies. The latter has 40 A350s on order, with four of them already delivered. Interesting time ahead, for sure.

Featured image by Airbus

What do you think of IndiGo ordering Airbus A350s? Let me know in the comments section below.

Follow IH Aviation and Travel on Social Media on Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.