NEW DELHI: It's literally raining aeroplanes into Indian skies, one can say. After what was said to be the biggest 470-aircraft deal signed by Air India in the recent past, IndiGo which is currently India's largest airline, has now signed up to buy 500 Airbus A320 planes, which is a record in aviation history for the world's biggest aeroplane deal ever. 

The multibillion-dollar deal for single-aisle Airbus planes was signed by Indigo with Airbus on the very first day of the Paris Air Show in the presence of Chairman of IndiGo V Sumantran, CEO Pieter Elbers and CEO of Airbus Guillaume Faury, and Christian Scherer Airbus' Chief Commercial Officer and Head of International.

IndiGo in a statement said, that the deal would provide IndiGo with a further steady stream of deliveries between 2030 and 2035. This 500 aircraft order is not only IndiGo's largest order but also the largest-ever single aircraft purchase by any airline with Airbus. 

It also said that IndiGo has previous orders totalling 480 aircraft which are yet to be delivered by the end of this decade. With this additional firm order of 500 aircraft for 2030-2035, IndiGo’s order book has almost 1.000 aircraft yet to be delivered well into the next decade. This IndiGo order book comprises a mix of A320NEO, A321NEO and A321XLR aircraft.

As of now, IndiGo operates over 1800 flights a day connecting 78 domestic and over 20 international destinations with its fleet of over 300 aircraft. It is looking to scale international operations to 32 destinations very soon.  

Industry experts say that the IndiGo deal could be worth in excess of US$ 50 billion and with the deliveries of all 1330 aircraft the company will become one of the largest operators in the region. 

According to experts, Covid times were very bad for the aviation industry but with full recovery in commercial activity and a growing number of a vast population in India opting to fly this is only a race to capture more market.