Airlines On A Buying Spree: Air India, IndiGo Lead With Orders For Over 1,100 Commercial Jets
According to Statista, the surge in aircraft orders by Indian airlines is driven not only by post-Covid recovery but also by the growing demand for air travel in the country.
IndiGo and Air India, which together command over 90% market share in India’s domestic aviation sector, have purchased the most commercial aircraft in the past two years (2023 and 2024). Together, these two airlines ordered over 1,100 commercial jets during this period, which is more than three times the orders of other major airlines worldwide.
According to data compiled by Statista, a global data and business intelligence platform, based on orders for Airbus and Boeing aircraft, IndiGo ordered 540 jets, while Air India bought 570 in 2023 and 2024.
“Over the last two complete years on record (2023-2024), India's two largest airlines, IndiGo and Air India, have bought by far the most aircraft in the civil aviation industry: 540 and 570 commercial jets, respectively, according to publicly released orders by Airbus and Boeing,” the Statista report said.
This comes as commercial jet orders hit new records in 2023, mainly due to the restoration of passenger travel after the Covid-19 pandemic-induced disruptions.
The chart showed that the orders placed by IndiGo and Air India were three times higher than the orders placed by other airlines globally.
“This is over three times more than the volume other major actors worldwide ordered: between 150 and 170 aircraft each for Ryanair (Ireland), Southwest Airlines (U.S.), Emirates (UAE) and American Airlines (US),” the report mentioned.
Commercial Aircraft Orders (2023-24)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Y8v9VXflkzY157DA3BdLxuEG7_rdtibs2IfSGIaivnw/edit?usp=sharing
According to Statista, the surge in aircraft orders by Indian airlines is driven not only by the post-Covid recovery, but also by the growing demand for air travel in the country. The focus on fleet modernisation to improve efficiency and safety is also another factor, it said.
Government data suggests that over the past decade, domestic air passenger traffic has grown 10-12% annually in India. “By 2040, the passenger traffic is expected to grow sixfold to around 1.1 billion. India’s commercial airline fleet is predicted to grow from 400 in 2014 to around 2,359 in March 2040,” a recent PIB release on India’s Aviation Vision 2047 said.
This means that airlines such as IndiGo and Air India, as well as other Indian domestic carriers, are expected to expand their fleet further. However, flagging another crisis in IndiGo, a separate Statista report on pilot-to-flight ratio, said the airline appears relatively understaffed compared to other major global carriers.
“Looking at the size of their active fleets (data from Planespotters.net), the pilot-to-aircraft ratio of IndiGo (14 pilots per commercial plane in service) appears slightly lower than that of Air India Express (15) and much lower than Air India (36),” the report explained, citing recent data.
It said these figures are lower compared to other global airlines such as Lufthansa, Ryanair and Air France, which have around 20 pilots per commercial aircraft.
