By Tim Hepher, Aditi Shah and Joanna Plucinska
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Airbus is set to strike a potentially record-breaking deal to sell 500 narrow-body A320 family jets to India’s biggest carrier IndiGo, industry sources said on Sunday.
The European plane maker has emerged as the favorite for an order eclipsing Air India’s historic interim purchase of 470 planes in February, the sources said on the sidelines of an airline industry meeting in Istanbul.
Such a deal would be worth around $50 billion at Airbus’ most recently published list prices, but would typically be worth less than half that after widespread airline industry discounts for wholesale transactions, aircraft analysts say.
Airbus and Boeing are also competing in separate talks to sell 25 wide-body A330neos or Boeing 787s to the same airline, they said.
IndiGo chief executive Pieter Elbers, who was attending the annual meeting of the International Air Transport Association in Istanbul, declined to comment on trade issues.
Airbus and Boeing also declined to comment.
Reuters first reported in March that IndiGo, which has 56% of India’s domestic market, was in talks with Airbus and Boeing for the order, which if confirmed would be the largest from a single airline. classified by units.
IndiGo’s potential new order comes as it has yet to take delivery of nearly 500 jets out of a total order of 830 Airbus A320 family aircraft, making it one of the group’s biggest customers. European.
Airbus and Boeing have racked up billions of dollars in new orders stretching beyond 2030 as airlines lock in supplies well in advance amid looming shortages.
(Reporting by Tim Hepher, Aditi Shah and Joanna Plucinska; Editing by Hugh Lawson and David Holmes)