Air India close to striking deal for 500 new planes

Air India is close to striking a deal to buy as many as 500 new planes from both Airbus and Boeing as part of the Tata Group’s plans to expand the newly acquired airline, leading news agency Reuters reported on Sunday.

The report cited industry sources as saying that the orders include 400 narrow-body jets, which are used for domestic flights and 100 wide-body planes such as Airbus A350s and Boeing 787s and 777s, which are flown on long-haul international flights.

Airbus and Boeing declined to comment as deals are normally governed by a confidentiality clause. Tata Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Reuters.

Tata Group had recently announced that it was merging its full services airline Vistara with Air India as part of a restructuring exercise to streamline its services in the fast-growing Indian aviation market. Singapore Airline also has a share in Vistara