"Historic moment for Indian aviation," says Indigo CEO Pieter Elbers after air carrier places order of 500 Airbus A320 planes

New Delhi [India], June 19 : Indigo CEO Pieter Elbers on Monday said that it is a historic moment for Indian aviation after low-cost carrier IndiGo placed the order for 500 Airbus aircraft to operate in the country.

Soon after signing the order with Airbus, IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers while addressing media address media from Paris said, "We are actually very excited with the announcement which we have just made for IndiGo. This is the largest order for IndiGo, not only that, even the largest order ever placed for a single aircraft type with Airbus and, a historic moment for Indian aviation."

The purchase agreement was signed on June 19 at the Paris Air Show 2023 in the presence of Chairman of the Board of IndiGo V Sumantran, CEO of IndiGo Pieter Elbers, CEO of Airbus Guillaume Faury, and, Airbus' Chief Commercial Officer and Head of International Christian Scherer.

IndiGo CEO further stated that this moment speaks to the growth of India.

"It speaks to the growth of India. It speaks to the future of India and it speaks to the future of IndiGo. So this order of 500 aircraft makes the total number of aircraft to be delivered a little short of 1000 today. There's 482 aircraft in the pipeline, being delivered between today and the end of the decade," he said.

IndiGo operates over 300 aircraft and has previous orders totalling upto 480 aircraft which are yet to be delivered by the end of this decade.

"It means these thousand aircraft which are going to be delivered will help the country move forward; will help IndiGo move forward, to make sure that we live up to our promise and continue to build our unparalleled network both domestic India and as well as internationally," he said.

On being asked whether the company is looking for ordering wide-body aircraft too, he said, "Allow us to enjoy the historic moment and excitement, ask me tomorrow about wide-bodies aircraft."

Indigo has recently announced its international routes/destinations with the help of several foreign carriers under codeshare.

Indigo is operating a wide-body aircraft B-777 plane for Istanbul.

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