By Joanna Plucinska LONDON (Reuters) – Air India is holding off on exercising its outstanding options to buy additional Boeing jets, its Chief Executive Campbell Wilson told Reuters on Wednesday, until the planemaker has cleared its backlog. “We don’t want to commit to anything until we have confidence of when it’s going to come. And […]
Business
Air India rules out more Boeing jet orders for now, CEO says
Audio By Carbonatix
By Joanna Plucinska
LONDON (Reuters) – Air India is holding off on exercising its outstanding options to buy additional Boeing jets, its Chief Executive Campbell Wilson told Reuters on Wednesday, until the planemaker has cleared its backlog.
“We don’t want to commit to anything until we have confidence of when it’s going to come. And likewise, they (Boeing) don’t want to offer something until they have confidence of when it’s going to come,” Wilson said in an interview in London.
In 2023, Air India ordered 250 new jets from Airbus and 220 from Boeing to revive its status with an all-new fleet. The airline also signed options to buy an additional 70 planes from Boeing including 50 737 MAXs and 20 787 Dreamliners.
It topped that up with an order for an additional 85 Airbus jets in October.
Boeing is still facing a production cap of 38 jets a month, imposed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) last year after a door blew out on an Alaska Airlines plane and scrutiny of Boeing’s safety and manufacturing procedures increased.
(Reporting by Joanna Plucinska; Editing by Toby Chopra)