Air India’s New Boss Says the Fleet Is Missing Something Big

Air India wants bigger planes. CEO Tewolde Gebremariam said on Tuesday at the Aviation India and South Asia summit in New Delhi that the carrier is looking to add widebody aircraft and has held talks with both Airbus and Boeing. He did not say how many jets the airline might order or when a decision could come.

The airline’s most recent Boeing order, announced in January, covered 30 narrowbodies: 20 737 MAX 8s and 10 MAX 10s. Air India also took delivery in April of the first of 26 older Boeing 787-8s that are slated for cabin retrofits, a project that adds premium economy and takes the aircraft from two cabins to three.

Gebremariam, who previously led Ethiopian Airlines, called high operating costs a major concern and said he expects Air India to return to profitability very soon. The need is real: Singapore Airlines, which owns a 25 percent stake in the group, disclosed that Air India lost S$3.56 billion in the fiscal year that ended March 31.

The report ties that loss to disruption from the war in Iran and to Pakistan’s closure of its airspace to Indian airlines, which has forced longer routings. For travelers, more widebodies would eventually mean more long-haul capacity and upgraded cabins on flights out of India, though any new aircraft would take years to arrive.

Sources: AirlineGeeks, Singapore Airlines