Indian low-cost airline IndiGo is negotiating the purchase of “several hundred aircraft” from Airbus, French finance minister Bruno Le Maire said in comments published by Les Echos on Thursday.
The contract could be signed at the French airshow in Le Bourget in June, the paper said, adding that Le Maire made the comments during his trip to India for the G20 summit.
An Airbus spokesperson said the company was constantly in discussions with airlines but said he could not comment on any talks that may, or may not, be going on.
IndiGo did not immediately reply. Last week rival Air India unveiled deals in a record order for 470 aircraft from Airbus and Boeing.
The provisional deals include 220 planes from Boeing and 250 from Airbus and eclipse previous records for a single airline as Air India vies with domestic giant IndiGo to serve what will soon be the world’s largest population.
Besides IndiGo and AI, Akasa Air has placed an order for 72 Boeing narrow-body aircraft, out of which 16 planes have been delivered.
That leaves Akasa Air with 56 aircraft on order. Go First, earlier known as Go Air, has 72 planes on order while Vistara is to receive 17 more Boeing planes. Currently, there are around 700 commercial aircraft in the country, with a majority of them being narrow-body or single-aisle planes.
Among others, around 470 aircraft of Airbus and about 159 Boeing planes are in commercial service in India. Boeing has projected the country will require around 2,210 new planes in the next two decades.
